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Israel wants to control all of Palestine.
It doesn't anymore. You're about 10 years behind. Israel has been totally willing to accept an independant Palestine for years now. The party actually dragging its feet on the matter is the Palestinians themselves. Israel had completely agreed to an idependant Palestine at the 2000 Camp David Summit, but it was Arafat's intransigence on the "right of return" issue that scuttled the summit. Much later even Likud PM Ariel Sharon physically severed Palestinian territories from Israel on a unilateral basis with a wall, in many cases abandoning areas with settler populations. Only the most hard-line of Likud actually maintain pretenses of holding on to the territories in any capacity, which is why Sharon broke from the party and formed Kadima. The fact is that Israelis have long since accepted the notion that Palestine is going to go its own way. Most of the haggling is over territorial disputes of what actually is Israeli vs. what is Palestinian, the right of return issue, and Palestine's security obligations to Israel. In that Arafat was an obstacle to resolution of any of the issues, whereas Abbas has been more open to negotiations. Hamas, on the other hand, is in the "death to Israel" crowd and has no intention of compromising on any issues or even recognizing the legitimacy of the Israeli state. Since Fatah and Hamas are basically in schism at the moment, that means Fatah is free of some of the more intransigent elements of Palestinian society, and as such is free to negotiate a state solution with Israel. In all liklihood the schism with Hamas, the incoming Obama administration, and the willingness of Kadima to endorse a two-state solution means you're likely to see a new push at a two-state solution.
Other than that you're mistaking a military operation to shut down an ongoing threat with some larger covert attempt to re-assert authority over Palestine. Ain't gonna happen.
