Israel Disengagement: 2005

While it is with great sadness and consternation that I watch the video's taken of settlers occupying Gush Katif recount the energy and determinism which shaped their settlement, I am also emboldened by Sharon's recent declaration (as written in the Jerusalem Post Online Edition):

"Yet this somewhat generic observation hardly begins to answer the questions every citizen has a right to ask of Sharon: "Why did you, who for so long opposed talking, let alone negotiating under fire, decide to dismantle settlements while terror and its threat are still solidly on the table? How will a unilateral withdrawal help matters?"

Then came the essence of Sharon's response: "Now the Palestinians bear the burden of proof. They must fight terror organizations, dismantle its infrastructure and show sincere intentions of peace in order to sit with us at the negotiating table. The world awaits the Palestinian response - a hand offered in peace or continued terrorist fire. To a hand offered in peace, we will respond with an olive branch. But if they choose fire, we will respond with fire, more severe than ever."

The echoes here of Ehud Barak's logic behind the unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon were unmistakable. Sharon was saying that Israel had gone as far as it could militarily under the existing rules of the game, so the only way Israel could advance further was to change those rules. "

~While I empathize and deeply feel for the loss of community and precious land garnered by the Israelis, it is most certainly an unsustainable task for 30,000 Israeli soldiers to guard 9,000 citizens from 1.5 million hostile Jordyptians, forever.

~Also, as Sharon states, the olive branch has now been clearly offered to the Palestinians for all of the world to witness. There should now be no confusion as to the burden of proof. The onus is clearly on the Palestinians to uphold their end of the agreement and eliminate terrorism.

Am I naive enough to believe that the Palestinian extremist's will use this goodwill gesture as a sign of peace? Of course not, but rather, a sign of appeasement and victory for their militant cause : Complete annihilation of the Zionist entity.

Are they prepared for what Israel will mete out, now that they have ceded some of their precious, viable land? I don't think anyone can fathom the response that awaits further terrorist incursions from Palestinians........

~Jeff