[Flux Capacitor]

It doesn't happen often, but Krauthammer's dead wrong.

I have always liked and respected Ariel Sharon. I still do and pray the best for him. But as Israel's PM, his decision to unilaterally surrender to the Palestinians withdraw from Gaza was a horrible, horrible, horrible mistake that will do far more damage to Israel in the long term than his own passage from this Earth (to put it bluntly).

There can be no "third way" with the Palestinians. They can never be even remotely trusted as any sort of "peace partner", certainly not as long as the generations of hate that Arafat bred are at its fore (which will be for decades). They cannot be allowed to create yet another Arab terrorist state at Israel's doorstep, and Sharon was about the last person I expected to clear the way to allow them to do just that.

As it became clear after the 2000 Intifada started that Ehud Barak would be history, I felt that Israel needed Benjamin Netanyahu more than ever. Now that Sharon is passing from the political scene (one way or another), I'm sad to say that it still does.

-Dan

[r9etb]

But as Israel's PM, his decision to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza was a horrible, horrible, horrible mistake that will do far more damage to Israel in the long term than his own passage from this Earth (to put it bluntly).

You're treating it like a football game. Look at it as a chess game, and see if you come to the same conclusion.

If you ask me, the behavior the Palestinians in Gaza has done more to strengthen Israel's hand than anything in the last 15 years.

[liberallarry]

They can never be even remotely trusted as any sort of "peace partner"

Sharon never thought they could be.

He withdrew from Gaza because Israel was not strong enough to evict the Palestinians, and because he thought he could use the withdrawal to make annexation in the West Bank viable.