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Making the Gaza Risk Pay Off
(Los Angeles Times)Editorial - The Israeli parliament's vote Tuesday to remove Israeli settlers from Gaza is a step toward a lasting peace between the Jewish state and the Palestinians. Prime Minister Sharon - an architect of the settlement movement after the 1967 War - took risks to attain his parliamentary victory. Many legislators from his party and its coalition partners voted against him, forcing him to seek help from more liberal opposition parties. Sharon's plan proposes evacuation of about 8,200 settlers from Gaza, where they live among 1.3 million Palestinians. The withdrawal offers Arafat's Palestinian Authority the opportunity to govern Gaza and show the world whether it can contain the terrorists based there. But Israel should not just toss the keys over the fence and leave. Gaza is heavily dependent on foreign aid, with more than half the population living on $2 a day or less. President Bush reversed decades of bipartisan U.S. policy in April when he recognized Israeli claims to keep major settlements. A Gaza withdrawal offers an opportunity for the U.S. to return its attention to the Palestinian state that Bush has endorsed and Israelis say they will accept.