The third intifada is here already. When people talk about it as a fait accompli, charting its course and voicing warnings that it will be more violent, brutal and destructive than its precursors, the conclusion is that it is already here, waiting for one tiny signal in order to burst. 

"The mother of all intifadas" is alive and kicking; it's frightening and ominous - but only on paper.

On the front pages of the press, in magazine reports and television broadcasts, pundits compete between themselves who can predict the precise date of its outbreak. They're trying to determine which Palestinian organization will rally the raging youths who are just waiting for D-Day in order to set out to the streets and mount a series of murderous terror acts. In this atmosphere, the only thing the IDF - Israel Defense Forces - can do is draw up scenarios and make plans to brace for the winds of war. If everyone hears a duck quacking and they think they see duck footprints on the ground, you can't argue it doesn't even exist.

And if someone still has their doubts, there's this footage that can only corroborate the theory that the intifada is already here. Imagining themselves as carrying the torch of the intifada and turning from unemployed and futureless youths into grassroots leaders, Palestinian youths last Friday [16 December] posted a video on the Internet, declaring the establishment of the "Battalions of National Unity". According to them, they founded a joint Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Popular Front leadership, which will become the standard-bearer of the new intifada. The masked militants pledged that the highly-charged city of Hebron will inspire all of the Palestinian Authority, as did the Jabalia refugee camp, which became the iconic beacon that blazed the way for the First Intifada.