[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

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Bibi makes the point well that this isn't a victory because of the withdrawl per se, rather because the world has accepted their refusal to comply with any of their obligations, and rewarded them generously for it. This mistake will cost lives.

[Txsleuth]

Yes, but did you notice, that Bibi, unlike President Bush's opponents and critics here in the USA...

DID tell the people in Gaza to get out. IOW, he was supportive of Sharon's right to do this...and didn't rant and rave and call him names...he just said what even Sharon probably admits, that is is a one-way deal...

and only time, tears, sacrifices, deaths, etc., will tell whether this was folly or genius.

[Publius6961]

rather because the world has accepted their refusal to comply with any of their obligations, and rewarded them generously for it.

I'm not sure whether to applaud or throw rocks, here.

Who is "their" and "them"??

[Victoria Delsoul]

I'll keep saying it, this is a big mistake. Leaving Gaza without getting something for it, is ridiculous. Abu Masin won't do a thing to the terrorists and they'll be close to Tel Aviv. As Bibi says, they didn't get an agreement in which they were sure that terrorists would not flow in from all over the world.

Our chief of intelligence said today in the Knesset, in our parliamentary defense and foreign affairs committee this afternoon, he said, terror will increase; it may not happen for a couple months, I say it will happen in a year or two. But there’s no question that this is viewed as a great victory for terror.

The U.S. wants to pull out of Iraq as badly as we want to pull out of Gaza, Iraq is thousands of miles away from the U.S., Gaza is right next to Tel Aviv, you don’t pull out, despite the fact that you want to get out because you know that Zarqawi would fill the vacuum, you know that, and we are pulling out and Hamas will fill the vacuum, Hamas and it’s ally al-Qaida. And that’s the problem, it’s not a question of wanting to leave Gaza, it’s how you leave, under what conditions. And I think we’re going to do it in such a way where we have no reciprocity, we have no built in security, in fact we’ve giving Gaza a port, can you imagine giving al-Qaida a port on the Hudson?

Unfortunately, and probably for good intentions, we’re giving terror a reward which will result in bad consequences. Not only for us by the way, because I think Gaza could very well be, over the next couple of years, may turn out to be an invaluable base for terror, just as Lebanon used to be, because there is no government, and this I fully agree with our ambassador in Washington, you’re really going to see whether Abu Masin does anything to terrorists. He hasn’t lifted a finger, and I suspect he’s not going to lift a finger and the result will be far from advancing the cause of peace, which I fervently want, this will set peace back and set terror forward.

As I said before, you don't defeat your enemy by rewarding him.