Its law enforcement agencies function with no more serious problems than their Western equivalents, and the government dares not challenge the need to prosecute, remove from office, and sometimes even jail people in the highest positions and of the highest standing in Israeli society. This system can easily be contaminated with undetectable and untraceable corruption, if the intimate association with the Palestinian system is institutionalized. Corruption should be a major concern, particularly when the Palestinians are so dependent on Israeli decisionmakers and officials at the individual and collective levels. All of these perilous processes have already been set in motion but have not yet undermined the Israeli system, nor damaged it beyond repair. National integration could do just that in a relatively short time.
Palestinian terrorism has a profound effect on domestic Israeli politics.
Very often prime ministers are deposed and elected, and governments fall and are established, as a result of terrorism or the suspension thereof. The danger is selective use of Palestinian terrorism to determine many, if not most, major developments in Israel. There is ample evidence that Israeli leaders have pleaded more than once with Arafat to halt terrorism on the eve of Israeli elections, in fact, admitting that they depend on his good will for political survival. This kind of orchestrated and controlled violence can be used to gain control over parts of the Israeli economy no less than in the political arena. The implementation of a disengagement strategy is anything but simple and easy.