Actually security is the #1 political issue for most Israelis, far above the economy and other issues despite the fact that 20% live below the poverty line. It is the reason that Sharon was first elected and the reason his personal popularity continues to be very high - so high that he can form a new party that instantly shoots to the top of the polls.
Israelis are nothing if not practical. Gaza was a cess pool that should have been ceded back to its original ruler, Egypt - but Egypt was too smart to take on the Pals (after having seen what they tried to do in Jordan). So Israel kept Gaza - which was a huge drain economically and militarily. The Generals have been wanting to jettison this piece of garbage for many years.
Give Sharon credit for building fences, cutting his losses, and forging ahead. Terrorist bombings are down 95% since he came to office. That is why he is popular.
"The Generals have been wanting to jettison this piece of garbage for many years."
Not exactly.
"The situation on Israel's southern border, and in the Philadelphi corridor, is a complex barometer for all of the region's problems. Not only does it register the ups and downs in Israeli-Palestinian relations. It reflects the state of Egypt's relations with Israel and the Palestinians, and the situation in Egypt and Gaza itself, where sub-state actors, led by Islamists, have progressively eroded the authority of the Egyptian state and the PA. Smuggling and infiltration must be understood—and fought—in these broader contexts.
The United States has to shift its perspective on this issue. The smuggling and infiltration network should be regarded as part and parcel of the global terrorism network, and the battle against it as part of the global war on terror. Smuggling constitutes a strategic convergence between the Palestinian terror apparatus in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and global militant Islam. It is a reflection of the strengthening of militant Islam in post-9/11 Egypt and in the post-Saddam Middle East. The border will only become the "border of peace" envisioned twenty-five years ago, if and when the United States realizes many of its broader goals for Egypt and the Arab world—goals that include profound political and economic reforms and the triumph of secular democracy over militant Islam.
Until that happens, there is no alternative to a border regime that rests on forceful deterrence, active interdiction, and swift reprisal. And that means that there is no alternative to Israel's continuing presence at this crucial point on the regional map.
Maj. Gen. Doron Almog served as head of Israel's Southern Command from 2000 to 2003. In these years, the Command succeeded in preventing all attempts by terrorists to breach the security barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip. He prepared this study while a visiting military fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy."
http://www.meforum.org/article/630
http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief004-12.htm
"It is the reason that Sharon was first elected and the reason his personal popularity continues to be very high - so high that he can form a new party that instantly shoots to the top of the polls."
His popularity is rising because he is now drawing from the left and the middle.