Invasions, shootings, arrests, and bombings are the standard fare in the Middle East today as we all know.  Yet, not long ago there was a veritable love-fest occurring between Arafat and Rabin and then Arafat and Barak.  Remembering the hugs, handshakes, and smiles that beamed across our TV's in the 1990's is not very difficult.  One would have thought the entire problem was on the way to a final solution and everyone could rest peacefully.  So what happened?  I carry no brief for Arafat and his allies and view him as little more than a petty bourgeois agent seeking to regain that which the Palestinians formerly held.  But the nucleus of the problem is not hard to fathom and was vividly demonstrated by the ultra-rightist assassination of Rabin in Nov. 1995.  There will never be peace in that area until the Rightists within Israel are brought under control by Israeli authorities, a tall order indeed in light of the degree to which they are supported by many key elements within the Israeli government and other influential circles.   The constant encroachments by these intransigents into Palestinian areas via land grabs, settlements, orchard destructions, the bull-dozing of Palestinian homes, the refusal of Israeli authorities to grant building and ownership permits to Palestinians, etc. ad infinitum were pre-ordained to foment a Palestinian backlash.  When the Palestinians realized that these continuing encroachments and expansions were not going to be stopped by any normal means of protest, they understandably resorted to violence.  Who wouldn't under the conditions they confronted.  Rock throwing and street demonstrations escalated into guns and bombs when the former failed to succeed.  When the bombings began to occur the Israeli leaders naturally claimed the Palestinians were instigating the basic problem by fomenting terror, although anyone with a modicum degree of objectivity could see that it was the failure of the Israeli government to restrain the Israeli Rightists that caused the uprising to start with.  Israeli media always claim terrorists are the source of the clash and need to be suppressed before peace can prevail, when precisely the opposite is true.  Terrorism is the result of the problem not the cause.  The cause are those elements within Israel who think they have a divinely ordained right under Old Testament biblical mandates to reclaim Judea and Samaria, expel all those of another persuasion, and assassinate or terrorize those within Israel itself who deny the validity of this crusade.   What Israel must do to ameliorate the problem is clear; they must muster sufficient strength to curtail the actions of their incorrigible Rightists and that will be a real challenge, indeed, in view of the fact that members of the Right-wing dominate key positions in the Israeli government, such as that of Prime Minister.  Israel needs to take cognizance of that well known line in literature which goes: WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.