You don't say!!

Submitted by Ami Isseroff (Israel), Sep 29, 2005 at 11:12

"Expert predicts more violence in Gaza" is like "Expert predicts more hot weather in August." ... There has been violence in Gaza for a long time. The question is not if there would be violence, but rather what Israel will be able to do to stop it, and what price it will cost in international prestige, soldiers tied down in Gaza and demoralization, and what policy gives the best chance for stopping the violence in the long run.

Disengagement was not a happy step and the Palestinian response is not great either. Nobody is happy to lose a gangrenous leg, but the alternative is worse, and disengagement brought material gains. There is a good reason why Likud rank and file support Sharon, and why most Israelis support disengagement. From here, it doesn't look the same as it does from there. Do you want your sons to stand guard in Gaza??

Behind the blahblah about the USA supporting its ally Israel forever and ever, there is the reality of Republican policies, which remain as they were, and State Department bias, which remains as it was. During the first year of the Intifada, when Palestinians were blowing up in our cities, your Republican administration imposed a spare parts embargo on Israel. That's what Republican verbiage is worth. Nice speeches and pats on the back won't keep the helicopters flying.

Sharon could not count on another 9-11 to shift the pressure. The occupation was wrong - politically, militarily and, if that counts, morally. It was causing the IDF to do things our soldiers didn't want to do and should not do. It was creating a growing lobby against peace, which surfaced in orange and tried to stop disengagement.

Bibi Nethanyahu and his friends went up against Sharon, and the results are plain to see. It was an idea whose time had come long ago.

Time for Zionism to get back to basics. Perhaps Abbas can't control his orange people, but Israel still has a modicum of sanity and order left. We have to control our orange people.

See:
Sharon: The Tiger is Smiling

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