(The Australian) Nicolas Rothwell - Sharon, and the majority of public opinion inside Israel, does not aim to leave Gaza because of some dewy-eyed desire to facilitate the creation of a viable Palestinian state. They seek to leave in order to strengthen Israel. Fifty years of mutating Arab hostility and more than 1,000 savage Israeli deaths have virtually killed the "peace camp." The "disengagement strategy" is precisely what it sounds like: an Israeli mental withdrawal from the possibility of coexistence with the Palestinians, who now lie safely behind an ever more effective security barrier. The Palestinians, and their Arab supporters, will have to accept that a state encompassing almost all the West Bank is no longer on offer.
2004-10-28 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive