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NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2005Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BarryGaza withdrawalIsrael’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip went very smoothly, as the settler fanatics were unable to organize serious resistance. For the first time since the 1993 Oslo Accords promised a Palestinian state, an entire swath of territory is now under Palestinian rule. This withdrawal is in some ways a poisoned gift, however, for Gaza is a stronghold of Hamas and other fundamentalist groups that the more secular Palestinian leadership will find hard to control. Gaza will remain an empty gesture if serious steps to evacuate the West Bank and East Jerusalem do not follow soon. But it is these very steps that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has foresworn. According to Dror Etkes of the Israeli group Peace Now, "International opinion demands a Palestinian state. His stance is one of appearing to respond to this demand while at the same time emptying this state of its substance" (LE MONDE, 8/12/05). This is shown in the fact that, while 8,500 settlers have now left Gaza, in the past year 12,000 new settlers have poured into the West Bank. There, and in East Jerusalem, is where the true question of a Palestinian state will be decided. |
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