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Everybody Loses in Sharon's Gaza Plan
(Boston Globe) Jeff Jacoby - A visitor would have to be strangely obtuse not to sense the deep attachment of Gaza's Jews to the land they live on. When those founders arrived, Jewish Gaza was all yearning and no agriculture: These settlements were mostly built on barren sand dunes where no one lived and nothing grew. Today it is a horticultural powerhouse, supplying two-thirds of the organic vegetables and cherry tomatoes Israel exports. More than half of Tnuvot's 127 year-round employees are Arab; they in turn account for about 2% of the 3,500 Arabs employed by Gaza's Jewish firms. During a break in the shift, I ask some of workers what they think of the plan for Israeli withdrawal. If the Israelis go, they tell me, they'll lose their jobs. If the plant shuts down, they'll be out of work, and if the Palestinian Authority takes it over, they'll still be out of work - their jobs will go to workers with better connections to the PA's ruling thugs. Politicians and pundits are applauding Sharon's planned retreat, yet a simple lettuce-packer seems to grasp what they cannot: The lives of Gaza's Arabs will not be improved by expelling Gaza's Jews.