...Rice's remarks about the day after the Gaza disengagement demonstrate that she has hardly grasped the new realities. Nothing in the experience of Gaza or the West Bank should have permitted her to move blithely into talking about the U.S. commitment to "the connectivity" of the two areas. Under any design at the present moment, this would inevitably be a link between two lively centers of terrorism. The Palestinian Authority has, for years, been promising to smother the terrorist ranks in would-be Palestine; but whatever progress has been made in this regard is the work not of Palestinians, but of Israelis and their targeted assassinations, checkpoints, and defensive barriers, some of which are admittedly kind of ugly. Rice hopes that Gaza "cannot be a sealed or isolated area, with the Palestinian people closed in." So the demand has grown already--supported by the secretary--that a modern port be built in Gaza and the Gaza airport reopened. But who will guarantee that these facelifts will not quickly turn out to be transfer points for deadly weapons? Shall we, perhaps, devolve this responsibility on the United Nations? Rice's vision is ingenuous and premature. The Palestinians have a history as true pioneers in the great terrorist bane of our times, and they are still stars in the terrorist firmament. There is only one way they can earn their sovereign independence, and it is by ceasing to imperil their neighbor.