Strategic Assessment

For several years Palestinian society has been grappling simultaneously with the impact of the intifada and with a process of leadership transformation. Both phenomena are profoundly disruptive and their courses remain highly uncertain. Since the Israeli disengagement will take place under the shadow of these two factors, its effect cannot be analytically isolated from them. Instead, the disengagement is almost symbiotically connected to them, making its ultimate impact on Palestinian society difficult to predict with any degree of confidence.