Disengagement means disengagement
Reader comment on item: Business as Usual in the Palestinian Authority

Submitted by Boris Galinsky (United States), May 17, 2005 at 11:54

The title of the article implies that Palestinian leadership has to adjust itself because of the Gaza pullout. This betrays the whole idea of this unilateral move.

The whole idea of disengagement was that there was no Palestinian partner for negotiations/peace, so Israel would set borders and hold future Palestinian governments responsible for any terrorist attacks.

Somehow, over period of a few months, this morphed into a full-blown negotiations process. There are demands from all over on how Israel should leave, what it should leave behind, what should be next steps, etc. Shalom's statements that Israel would stay depending on the outcome of future elections is just another side of it. There is not a hint of unilateral move in it.

How Arabs would behave after Israel leaves Gaza is

1. Predictable - it will get worse. Egypt will start playing more aggressively as well as it is demanding more troops in Sinai to control weapon smuggling to Gaza (like they don't control it now).

2. Up to Arabs. Remember - disengagement means leaving. And when leaving don't forget to close the door.

The only question for Israel is - what you are going to do when rockets start falling on Ashkelon?

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