Diffraction at HERA and the confinement problem

We discuss HERA data on the high energy behavior of the total \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$\gamma^*p$\end{document} cross section and on diffraction in deep inelastic scattering. We outline their novelty in comparison with diffraction in high energy hadron-hadron scattering. As a physical picture, we propose an interpretation in terms of QCD radiation at small and large distances: a careful study of the transition between the two extremes represents a new approach to the QCD confinement problem.