… quote unquote an Hamas banner hailing the Israeli evacuation from Gaza. Of course that is nonsense since the Palestinians could have had Gaza and heck of a lot more had Arafat accepted… or even seriously negotiated… the deal offered by then PM Ehud Barak at Camp David and Taba. Gaza was always the first playing card in the negotiations and everybody knows it.
And so far, despite apparent the avidity of some mainstream media outlets to show the violence of incalcitrant settlers, the evacuation has been relatively peaceful, exceptionally peaceful for the Middle East. Haaretz is reporting almost all the residents of the Northern Gaza settlements having agreed to leave with most already gone. No doubt the southern settlements will be more difficult. But if events continue without a major snafu, the ball will soon enough be in Mohammed Abbas’ court. Gaza will be his playground and he will have Hamas and Islamic Jihad to deal with. I don’t envy him…. As we used to say on our own playground, “No backsies!”
Abbas will soon learn why Egypt didn’t want Gaza back.
Rog,
The mosquito comes from the nearby swamp to bite. Oh, you can kill a mosquito, but it will be followed by another, and another and another. Eventually, you will decide you don’t want to live near the swamp.
The mosquito knows this.
The only reason the Israeli’s are moving out of the Gaza strip is because Palestinian terrorists made it more palatable for them to leave than to stay there.
Terror works.
And this proves it.
The Iraqi insurgency is paying attention and are doing exactly the same thing. And it will have exactly the same end result.
The terrorists win.
Roger:
I am very conflicted about the Gaza pullout. I agree with the anti-pullout argument in regards to Gaza becoming Hamastan. But wasn’t that happening anyway/ If Israel was going to retain Gaza what was it going to do with the one and half million Palestinians? There was no way that they could include them as citizens of the State of Israel and I do not think they could keep them in a stateless limbo forever. Were the settlements really a good form of security? I don’t claim to know, maybe they were but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that thought. It seems that they were just targets and that the number of troops required to keep them safe and the checkpoints and police stations seemed to attract as many attacks as they stopped. If Gaza and it’s palestinian population was never going to be included into Israel proper then how was the Gaza situation going to end. The Palestinians were never going to agree to any settlement because they like things as they are. They get to yell occupation and continue their suicide bombing attacks and they get more and more sympathy every year from the world community in a twisted form of logic.
This is not peace. The attacks will increase. Sharon will get no credit from the world community. Sharon is enraging his base so he can’t be doing this for political gain and his military credentials seem to be strong. The only positive aspect I can see is that this action will allow Israel to complete the wall and use it to punish Gaza for the coming attacks by cutting off access. Maybe if the Gaza residents wake up in ten years and notice that nothing has improved since they have controll they may begin to think again about their leadership. This is very little for giving up Gaza but on the other hand I can’t see how 9000 settlers and the Army can controll one and a half milloion stateless people who are under Israeli responsibility. How can you hold the land but not include the population in the government. I have no sympathy for the Palestinians. They have fought for war and they ignore options for peace. Israel needs to seperate themselves from the palestinians as soon as possible. gaza wasn’t worth the effort. Maybe