I intend to write at some length about the Ze'ev Sternhell matter, with particular attention to its context. But for just now, I cannot refrain from calling our collective attention to the scandalous, even infuriating, rhetorical vacuity of at least two of Israel's leaders.

The immediate reaction is a sigh of relief: Shaul Mofaz lost his bid for leadership of the Kadima party, and lost big; Tzipi Livni defeated him convincingly. "No" to bellicose Mofaz, "yes" to sometimes pacific Livni.

But it's not Livni's pre-election hawkishness that prompts a sigh that's on the shallow side. The reason for that is that the gathering momentum in the Palestinian community is for a binational state - that is, for a "one state" solution.

That handwriting has been on the wall for some time, but it is no longer in faded gray. It is in bold type. Soon enough, it will be surrounded by flashing neon lights.

When the very first atom bomb was detonated, in Alamagordo, New Mexico, J. Robert Oppenheimer's famously cited from the Bhagavad Gita: "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Last week, Stephan Vanpeteghem was killed. Vanpeteghem, age 35 and the married father of two, was part of the Belgian contingent serving as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) clearing unexploded ordinance in South Lebanon. The destroyer of worlds that led to his death was part of the residue of cluster bombs Israel employed principally in the last three days of its war in Lebanon two years ago.