For the umpteenth time....
Sharon used to be Mr Greater Israel in the 70's and 80's. But the intifada forced him to realize that Israel cannot rule 2 million Palestianans. He didn't get out of Gaza because of any Bush administration pressure. He got out because it was a hopeless, militarily indefensible position. He consolidated his lines and abandoned large Palestinian urban centers, which is the militarily correct thing to do.
This morning I was considering Irish history. In 1920 the British decided to make a compromise peace with the IRA. The peace was that Southern Ireland became de facto independent although legally a Dominion of the British Empire (Republic was unacceptable to the British and Dominion unacceptable to Sinn Fein so they called it the Irish Free State). This led to a civil war between Eamon de Valera and the Republicans who wanted to fight on till they got a united Irish Republic and Michael Collins and the Free Staters who wanted peace. Between the maximalists and the compromisers. Michael Collins was killed but the Free Staters won.
The Palestinians have never had to choose between their Republicans and Free Staters. But once they have an actual territorial base and a leadership vaccuum they will have to. The reason Arafat would never commit to anything was because he never wanted to take the responsibility Michael Collins did and choose compromise. He always wanted to be holding out for the better deal to keep the Republicans happy. He didn't want a Palestinian civil war. Now, they will have to have one.
Exactly.
And occasionally its politically better to blame the Americans for a difficult decision. Thats fine, whatever works.
Israel has had no choice but to pick a defensible line, and get all of their people on the same side of it. Where they chose that line was a matter for them to decide, but they had to pick one. They did. Getting all their people on the safe side was painful, but they had to do it. They have to get out of the business of managing 2 million arabs.
They also need to seal that line, to force the arabs to deal with one another. Without Israeli employment and Israeli markets, Gaza will have to orient itself toward Egypt, and the arab west bank will have no choice but to orient itself toward Amman.
Every attack across the line should be answered with a loss of territory, but they should not take in any more arabs; if moving the line in response to attack puts arabs on the Israeli side of the line, they should be compensated and moved to the far side of the line. Its well proven by now that Israel must not get into the business of governing arabs.