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Most of us wanted to believe in that Disengagement of four years ago. Led by Arik Sharon, “the General,” the no-nonsense strategist, we trusted he had already planned the next steps, like a master chess player. We expected benefits we will reap for years to come for the deep wound Israel would self-inflict. There might have been a plan, but God thought otherwise. Prime Minister Sharon is still in a coma of sorts, and there is not a single soul who was privy to his Grand Plan. Some of us opposed unilateral Disengagement. The most vocal opposition included the residents...

The Second Disengagement by Ari Bussel "According to the Hebrew calendar, today is the fourth anniversary of the disengagement. Israel uprooted approximately 10,000 Israelis – men, women and children – from their homes. To our regret, Gaza has become a base for Hamas-led, Iranian-sponsored terrorism; thousands of rockets and missiles have been fired at us. Therefore, today, I would like to emphasize … Peace will go back to being based on reciprocity, not unilateralism. In the framework of the peace agreements, Israel expects that the Palestinians will recognize the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish People,...

Sunday's confrontation between an armed Hamas cell and Palestinian Authority policemen in Kalkilya shows that the Islamic movement still has a military presence in the West Bank - one that it is hoping to use to topple Mahmoud Abbas's regime there. PA security officials said the two Hamas operatives who were killed in the clash, Muhammad Samman and Muhammad Yassin, headed a cell that possessed large amounts of weapons, including explosives and automatic rifles, some of which had been hidden in a basement of a mosque in the city. The weapons, according to the officials, were supposed to be used...

President Shimon Peres said Wednesday that he erred in supporting Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

(IsraelNN.com) Hevron activist Baruch Marzel, interviewed on Kuwait's television station, explained why the Disengagement was good and why a PA state won't be formed. Marzel, a leading member of the currently-outlawed Kach organization, and the Kuwaiti TV station recently came to a surprising agreement to speak to one another. A resident of Jewish Hevron with his wife and nine children for over two decades, Marzel explained to the NRG-Maariv website why he agreed to the interview: "I don't see that BBC has any fewer anti-Semites than the Kuwaiti television - and even on the Israeli channels there is great anti-Semitism..."...

6 Elul 5767, August 20, '07 Published: 08/20/07, 2:10 PM Israeli Society Debates Draft Dodging by Gil Ronen (IsraelNN.com) The hot topics in Israel's debate fora this summer are "sarbanut" and "hishtamtut" – words that refer to, respectively, conscientious objection and draft evasion. Most, but not all, Israeli men and women are drafted into the military at age 18. Exceptions are made with regard to religious women, married women, many full time Torah students, Arabs, and people with medical problems Earlier this month, the IDF published statistics which showed a rise in the relative number of draft evaders – people...

3 Av 5767, July 18, '07 Published: 07/18/07, 5:06 PM Knesset Passes Indictment-Erasure Proposal by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) The government has agreed to legislation proposed by several Knesset Members to pardon indicted anti-Disengagement protestors. It may include policemen as well. The Knesset approved a preliminary reading of the proposed bill early Wednesday evening by the comfortable margin of 37-10. The bill now passes to the Knesset Law Committee for final formulation, from where it will return to the Knesset for additional votes. The bill has been exempted from the necessary 45-day waiting period, but is not expected to be passed...

God's revenge on pullout leaders insignificant compared to suffering of settlers B. Michael Published: 02.21.07, 11:13 / Israel Opinion Even before the celebration over former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz's resignation ended, the settler pagans found time to celebrate the resignation of Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi. As far as they are concerned, this is another targeted assassination of a member of the disengagement gang carried out by an avenging and begrudging God. As an aside, it is worthwhile mentioning why these revelers are deserving of the term "pagans." A religious Jew knows that he worships God. A pagan Jew is...

Follow up on disengagement shows no progress in development, infrastructure. Land owner describes difficulties in rebuilding, cultivating, urges changes, ‘I'm asking governments on both sides to allow simple people from both nations to live’ Ali Waked Published: 11.14.06, 15:39 GAZA STRIP – On the eve of the disengagement in August 2005, Hashem al-Ara, also known as Abu Muhammad, told Ynet of his hope for a better future for Gaza, and of the use of his land after dozens of years since it was taken. “We had 70 dunams of land. On the day that Neve Dekalim was built, bulldozers came...

Nationalist Camp Loyalists Arrested, Detained, and More Hillel Fendel by Hillel Fendel Ehud Olmert spoke often of the need for post-Disengagement "internal reconciliation" with the pro-Land of Israel public. His gov't is now busy arresting many of that public's most active members. A large ad published in Haaretz in early August 2005, just before the Disengagement from Gush Katif and northern Shomron, proclaimed that a campaign had begun to promote "mending the rift within our people" the day after the expulsion. In July of 2005, it was Ehud Olmert - then a Likud minister and front-man for Ariel Sharon -...

Human rights group: Contempt for human life in Gaza Physicians for Human Rights link dire medical services in Gaza to closure of border crossings into Gaza Ali Waked Latest Update: 09.03.06, 19:29 Members of the Physicians for Human Rights organization deplored on Sunday the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip where they visited a number of hospitals and met with Palestinian Health Minister Dr Basim Naeem of Hamas. Prof. Tzvi Bentwich of the group said he was impressed by the interest among members of the Palestinian medical services in cooperating with Israel to improve the situation in Gaza. "There...

At around 4 a.m. Saturday, Lt. Col. Emanuel Moreno, a senior commander in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal), was killed in a fierce battle with Hizbullah fighters near Baalbek in the Bekaa valley not far from the Lebanese-Syrian border. From the details of the commando raid that have filtered into the media, we learned that Moreno and his men were airdropped into the area by helicopter along with their two Hummer vehicles, with the mission of attacking a Hizbullah base in the nearby village of Bodei used by the Iranian-sponsored guerrilla fighters for weapons smuggling.Iran is now working...

The open wound of Gush Katif By Nadav Shragai Last Friday when Makor Rishon's photographer, Miri Tzahi, saw the photo of First Lieutenant Amihai Merhavia, who was killed in the battle of Bint Jbail, it jogged something in her journalist's memory. She thought she had seen this face before. Tzahi, who is about publish the album, "Katif - Nine days in Av," featuring hundreds of photos of the "days of the expulsion," searched through her computer archive and found a series of photos from around four years ago, showing Merhavia during the violent evacuation of Havat Gilad (Gilad Farm) in...

Former Chief of Staff: Sharon's Disengagement a Disaster 15:56 Jul 06, '06 / 10 Tammuz 5766 by Ezra HaLevi Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Moshe Yaalon, IDF Chief of Staff until the implementation of the Gaza withdrawal, said Thursday that the entire Disengagement was conceived to save PM Sharon from legal troubles. “The Disengagement was not the result of thorough strategic analysis but the result of [then-prime minister, Ariel Sharon’s] political distress," Yaalon said in an interview to be published in full by Haaretz this weekend. “It was a disengagement from reality and a disengagement from the truth." Though such a claim...

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces on Thursday took over the remains of three abandoned Jewish settlements in the northern Gaza Strip and entered a nearby Palestinian town, creating a temporary buffer zone to prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets at Israel. The army last week launched its largest operation in the coastal area since it withdrew from the territory a year ago. The operation, which followed the capturing of an Israeli soldier, was expanded overnight after militants from the ruling Hamas group fired two homemade rockets at the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, which used to be out...

No, Never Again by Rachel Saperstein Jun 29, '06 / 3 Tammuz 5766 The following was adapted from a speech delievered by Mrs. Saperstein to the World Beitar Convention, held at the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem on June 17, 2006 My name is Rachel Saperstein. I am 65, a wife, mother and grandmother. I came from New York to live in my homeland 38 years ago. My husband and I once lived in a beautiful home in Gush Katif. Today, I am a refugee. We were forcibly removed from our home by the State of Israel. Not by the non-Jewish...

Most Israelis oppose Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to unilaterally withdraw from most of the West Bank, a public opinion poll released Monday showed. 50 percent of Israelis oppose the premier's realignment plan, whereby Israel would pull out of the vast majority of the West Bank while maintaining the large settlement blocs, while 46% of Israelis support the proposal, the Hebrew University poll found. While 54 percent of the Israelis polled said that the outcome of the last election grants Olmert a mandate to carry out his withdrawal plan, 58% believe a referendum should be carried out over the contentious...

Shin Bet investigates former settler spokesman Security service interrogates former Gaza Beach Regional Council spokesman Eran Sternberg on suspicions of involvement in incitement, illegal activity against security forces, minorities. 'Even today I maintain that delaying recruitment could prevent uprooting of settlements' he says Efrat Weiss Eran Sternberg, a former spokesman for the Gaza Beach Regional Council, is being investigated by the Shin Bet after he made comments in favor of dodging the draft. The security service is investigating Sternberg, who was evacuated from the Ganei Tal settlement almost a year ago during last summer’s Gaza disengagement, for alleged incitement. Officers...

My "Reward" for Serving My Country by Yehezkel Bin-Nun Jun 15, '06 / 19 Sivan 5766 In 1993, I was one of the few Canadian Jews who moved to Israel. A year later, I volunteered for the Israeli army. I was 23 years old, five years older than native-born Israelis when they begin to serve. I served for a year in the Golani infantry brigade and then, for the next ten years, I did one month of reserve duty annually. Today, almost half of secular Jews refuse to serve in the army. Not three years, not one year and certainly...

IDF commanders are to hold a disciplinary hearing Thursday morning for a soldier commended for excellence, who refused to shake hands with Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz on Wednesday, in protest over what he called the "expulsion" of the Gaza settlers, Army Radio said. Sergeant Hananel Dayan, who serves in the armored corps, was one of 120 soldiers who received commendations at Wednesday's traditional Independence Day ceremony at the President's Residence.

Elections winner Olmert visits Western Wall before delivering victory speech; Kadima leader vows to bring peace, stresses need to renew negotiations, but tells PA leader Abbas: We won't wait forever Acting Prime Minister and Kadima leader Ehud Olmert turned to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas early Wednesday and called for "reconciliation, compromise and peace," but told the PA chairman Israel will not "wait forever." In order to move forward Israel will need to renounce parts of the Land of Israel and evacuate Jews from their homes, the acting PM said. In his victory speech following what is shaping up as a...

The Promise of Kadima By Guardian Unlimited / World news 12:07pm The elections here are just under three weeks away. If the polls can be believed, Kadima, Ehud Olmert's party, will get the largest number of seats and form the next government. Since November, surveys have shown Kadima well in the lead, and it has remained there despite the seemingly incredible turns of event - from Ariel Sharon's debilitating stroke to Hamas's unexpected victory in the Palestinian elections. I, for one, am not surprised. I come from a long-time Labor family. During the '90s I supported the Oslo accords and...

Thursday, March 09, 2006 Annexation? Colonies? Inflammatory U.K. Media Bias On March 6th The Scotsman ran a story with the incredible headline Israel 'plans to annex West Bank colonies' in response to Hamas. The story, of course, was about former GSS Chief and Kadima Knesset candidate Avi Dichter's detailing of Prime Minister Olmert's plans for unilateral withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria. The headline was the most inflammatory part of the piece, of course, and it colors how a reader not intimately familiar with the history of the area and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will view...

Mar. 6, 2006 20:32 | Updated Mar. 6, 2006 20:36 Analysis: 'Short and tight defensible borders' By YAAKOV KATZIsrael's security fence. Photo: Ariel JerozolimskiAvi Dichter's announcement this week that Israel would unilaterally disengage from large sections of the West Bank if Kadima won the upcoming elections, brought to surface one of the most current crucial arguments within the IDF General Staff over the security importance of settlements in Judea and Samaria. While anticipating a second disengagement under the next government, some in the IDF were taken by surprise with Dichter's announcement that the disengagement would be a strictly "civilian affair"...

Israel: Ariel Sharon Near DeathBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyUPDATE 17:20: Four hour emergency operation on Prime Minister's Sharon was successful. Fifty centimeters of Sharon's upper intestine was removed. Doctors say that the major problem remains Sharon's lack of consciousness. Sharon, who entered surgery in critical condition, is now in stable but serious condition. Jerusalem-----February 11.......Israel has been praying for a miracle. For Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to wake up from a stroke induced coma, smile and tell us that we should not be worrying about his health. But on this sunny and cold day in Jerusalem, the news is...

Israel: Ariel Sharon Near DeathBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem-----February 11.......Israel has been praying for a miracle. For Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to wake up from a stroke induced coma, smile and tell us that we should not be worrying about his health. But on this sunny and cold day in Jerusalem, the news is not good. And most of Israel will not know that Sharon may be living his last hours until they switch on their TV or check their e-mail tonight. A hospital spokeswoman in Jerusalem has just stated that the Israel Prime Minister's "life is in danger."...

Aluf Benn and Mazal Mualem report “Olmert facing dissent within Kadima over unilateral pullout”, "Senior Kadima figures Avi Dichter and Tzachi Hanegbi strongly oppose party leader and Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's vision of further unilateral withdrawals in the West Bank, Army Radio reported Wednesday." "In his first media interview since taking on the job of acting premier, Olmert said Tuesday that Israel "will separate from most of the Palestinian population that lives in the West Bank, and that will obligate us to separate as well from territories where the State of Israel currently is." "The direction is clear," he...

Moshe Yaalon says during Herzliya Conference Israel failed to create effective, reliable deterrence against rocket attacks; ‘Arabs’ refusal to recognize Israel is source of all violence directed against it from dawn of Zionism to this day,’ he adds Former IDF chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon said Monday that Gaza has turned into “Hamastan, Hizbullahstan and al-Qaedastan” following Israel’s withdrawal from the area last summer. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel’s National Security, Yaalon said Israel easily gave up on principles such as border supervision and demilitarization. The former IDF head said Israel failed to create effective...

Sharon was elected in ’02 to fight terror and so he did. He also got together with Bush and planned a mutual strategy which took the form of the Roadmap. The Road Map envisaged the end of terror and incitement prior to the creation of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state whose borders were to approximate the Green Line subject to minor exchanges of land. To top it off the Arab countries were to normalize relations with Israel. Sharon’s acceptance of the Roadmap was conditioned on the removal of Sadaam Hussein. Israel had to be protected from an attack from...

From Ha'aretz/Kol Israel Reshet Aleph: 06:14 Settler leader: All Israelis, Gaza evacuees too, hope for PM`s recovery (Israel Radio) From The Jerusalem Post: Jan. 5, 2006 6:20 Gaza rabbi believes evacuees will pray for PM By JPOST.COM STAFF Rabbi Yosef Elnekaveh, regional rabbi of Gaza, said early Thursday in an interview to Israel Radio that despite the pain of the disengagement, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had worked for years to build Israel. "He is a brother," Elnekaveh said, adding that the Jewish people should pray for Sharon's recovery. Elnekaveh stated that he believed that most of the Gush Katif evacuees...

White House to Israel: 'Get moving!' By Stan Goodenough December 12, 2005 Just in case it was not yet clear that Israel's diplomatic rewards from this summer's Gaza "disengagement" have expired, the US State Department at the weekend signaled it was back to business as usual, insisting Israel ignore recent "Palestinian" aggression and offer concessions that put Jewish life in danger. Stripping away all the bureaucratese, the message went something like this: Now you listen to us, Israel. You listen well, and you do as we say. It does not matter to us that six Jews were blown to shreds...

Friday, November 25, 2005 Opening Rafah: A Recipe For Disaster Today the border crossing at Rafah was opened with much fanfare and very positive news coverage worldwide. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took part in a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the occasion which will give the Palestinians a border with Egypt free of Israeli supervision. Perhaps ominous were some of President Abbas' comments, in particular: The achievement we are celebrating today belongs first and foremost to the martyrs, wounded, prisoners, and all Palestinians who have sacrificed plenty in this struggle. Why is this ominous? He credits the intidafa and the...

Whither Disengagement? Whither the Road Map? Whither Two-State Plans? Michael L. Wise, One State Plan, March 6, 2005 Supporters of PM Sharon’s Disengagement Plan thought it was a very clever strategy. Evacuate Gaza, complete the Wall to include 5-8% of the West Bank territory and 80% of its Jewish settlement population, and then declare a Palestinian state. Sounds exciting. No more Arabs to worry about and a great opportunity for peace and prosperity. Singapore, Hong Kong, Benelux, NAFTA all Pollyannaish images. However... A significant risk associated with all two-state plans is being ignored. PA control of any part of the...

Senior Hamas sources say group turned former Gaza settlement Neve Dekalim into ‘military training camp for martyrs,’ boast several Qassam rockets fired from former Jewish capital into nearby Israeli Negev towns In what expelled Jewish residents of the area are calling the "ultimate insult," Hamas has turned the former Jewish capital of the Gaza Strip into a terror training camp and has used the territory to launch rockets into Israel, World Net Daily has learned. Before Israel's Gaza withdrawal in August, Neve Dekalim was the largest town in Gaza's Gush Katif slate of Jewish communities. The neighborhood was usually bustling...

Nov. 14, 2005 18:38 | Updated Nov. 14, 2005 18:45 Peretz fronts bill to pay off settlers By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL In a move that stirred controversy among MKs of all parties, newly elected Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz submitted a Knesset bill Monday that would grant compensation to West Bank settlements where 60% of the residents left voluntarily. In a statement accompanying the bill Peretz wrote that he intended to create "incentives for the continuation of voluntary evacuation of the Israeli citizens located in Judea and Samaria.” "[The disengagement] was a concrete example of the nation's ability to establish...

UK Minister for the Middle East Dr. Kim Howells told the UK House of Commons on Wednesday: "It distressed many of us to see how the greenhouses were looted at disengagement....That was an act of incredible stupidity, because perhaps as many as 10,000 people were employed in those greenhouses. I was glad to hear over the past couple of weeks that the Saudis and Israelis, among others, have put money into replacing the components of the greenhouses that were looted and sold off, presumably on the streets of Gaza." "I was in Ramallah three weeks ago. I had not been...

Two Israelis were killed and four were wounded in a shooting attack at the hitchhiking station near the Gush Etzion Juction in Judea, between Bethlehem and Hebron. Zaka reported that all of the victims were evacuated by ambulance to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital except for one lightly wounded victim who was transported Shaare Zedek. One victim was wounded seriously, two moderately, and one lightly. Eyewitnesses described blood-spattered backpacks strewn haphazardly at the busy intersection. Judea and Samaria Police reported that a passing car opened fire at the busy junction. Two vehicles were reportedly hit by the fire. The terrorists...

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 01:22 IST JNW HEADLINE NEWS Analysis: The Wolfensohn threat By Ryan Jones October 10th, 2005 Former World Bank head and new top Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn has been a very busy man since Israel's “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, a move he helped in large part to push through. Notwithstanding the completion of that withdrawal, Wolfensohn has joined the “Palestinians” in insisting Gaza remains occupied by virtue of Israel retaining to a large degree control over what enters and exits the Strip. In order to remedy that insufferable situation, Wolfensohn last week helped broker a deal...

Sep. 23, 2005 0:52 | Updated Sep. 23, 2005 6:04 Rabbi Eliyahu changes mind on refusal By YAAKOV KATZ AND MATTHEW WAGNER In a surprise break from his fierce opposition to disengagement and his support of calls for the refusal of IDF evacuation orders, former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliahu, in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, urged members of the national religious camp on Thursday to remain loyal to the state and the army. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Photo: Ariel JerozolimskiThis view stands in stark contrast to that espoused by a group of settlement rabbis – such as Zalman...

Palestinians streamed into the former West Bank settlements of Ganim and Kadim Tuesday evening as the IDF completed its pullout from the four West Bank settlements marked for evacuation. Gunmen were seen firing in the air as hundreds of Palestinians poured in to the settlements, reprising scenes of the Gaza withdrawal. On Tuesday night the IDF completed its pullout from Kadim and Ganim, evacuated settlements in northern Samaria, marking the end to the disengagement process in the West Bank. Earlier in the day, the army left Sa Nur after completing the late Monday night burial of the synagogue, and by...

The cabinet voted Sunday to leave about two dozen synagogues in the Gaza Strip intact, leaving the fate of the houses of worship in the hands of the Palestinians. The cabinet voted 14-2 against razing the structures, even though a year ago the same ministers approved the demolitions. Critics said last-minute considerations - including a desire to win the support of leading rabbis ahead of general elections - prompted several Cabinet members to change their minds. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his cabinet ministers Sunday morning that he opposed the demolition of the synagogues in the Gaza Strip as part...

The looming civil war, which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prophesied from the pages of The New York Times, did not materialize. It did not because a civil war requires two opposing camps fighting each other, hating each other, and most importantly, convinced that their survival depends on the annihilation of each other. Over the past two months, I spent a great deal of time in Gush Katif, both with families in the last minutes of their lives there, as well as with the soldiers and officers. What I saw, even at the most trying and tragic moments, was not a...

Time to “Draw Down” in Iraq ? Hurricane Katrina – and whatever other storms may follow this season – give us an excellent reason to review our continuing involvement in Iraq. A constitutional referendum is scheduled next month , and, assuming it is approved , Iraq can become self-governing not long afterwards. It’s time to sit down with the Iraqis and say : “ Look: we have problems of our own to deal with now. These are problems that will require most of our energy and our funds. You’re going to have to take control of your own destiny –...

In almost every news story or political commentary show aired of late, the same lie has been consistently repeated: that the majority of the Israeli people were in favor of the Disengagement Plan. In truth, every time the question of ceding to the Arabs those areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza settled by Israelis was made a central issue in any authoritative vote, the Israeli people, or any part thereof, actually rejected the proposal. Prior to 1993, Yitzchak Rabin campaigned on two basic points: no talking with the PLO, and "Whoever considers descending from the Golan Heights is abandoning -...

Ariel Sharon had evidently reached the conclusion that a military victory was needed, and since he was incapable of directing or unable to order a military victory over the Palestinians, he ordered a military victory over the Jewish "settlers". Israelis opposed to Ariel Sharon's unilateral "disengagement plan" had something in common with those who backed the plan. Neither group had any idea at all of why Sharon was implementing it. Those who opposed the plan, the "Orange Banner" camp, unsurprisingly had trouble understanding what benefits Sharon could possibly think would come from the "disengagement". But the supporters of the plan...

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Palestinian medical experts fear a looming health crisis after Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip unless patients are guaranteed access to life-saving treatment beyond the territory. While Israel regards its departure from Gaza as signalling the end of its 38-year occupation, the Palestinians argue that Israel will remain an occupying power as long as it retains control of its borders and is thus still obliged to meet the health needs of the local population. "I fear a worsening of the health situation after the withdrawal from Gaza as a result of the Israeli cordon," said Dr...

Palestinians are planning to rename the settlements in the Gaza Strip "to erase any memory" of Israel's presence in the area. In recent weeks, the PA received many requests from Palestinians asking that the settlements be given Arab names. Most of the requests have come from families of Palestinians who were killed since the second intifada broke out in September 2000. The families want to honor their sons by calling some of the settlements after them. Others have demanded that some settlements be named after Palestinian leaders. The UAE announced last month that it would donate $100 million to build...

The evil decree has been fulfilled. The unspeakable has happened. Like most of you, I have cried more these past two weeks than the last ten years combined. The question being asked by hundreds of thousands across the globe is; "What do we do now?" We understand that even though we are filled with pain, anguish, frustration and bitterness, we must go on. We must continue... but Where? What? and How? First of all, we must not allow ourselves to get depressed. Feelings such as pain and anguish can be overcome ("No Pain, No Gain") and used as positive motivation....

I planned so many articles while I was in Shirat Hayam in Gush Katif, and drew so many conclusions: * about the conceptions that failed, * about the leadership in the field that fought for its own survival, instead of for Gush Katif, * and about rabbis who sent their students to perpetrate the crime of expulsion. There is much moral stocktaking to do now, and many issues must be clarified in-depth: * Who is really the enemy, and from what direction will he come to attack us? * Is it the right thing to continue to enlist in the...

President George W. Bush, addressing a convention of war veterans, praised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for “beginning to remove settlements in Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank (Samaria).” The president, speaking in Salt Lake City, was referring to the disengagement plan which was carried out over the past week. Implementation of the plan has resulted in the destruction of 25 Jewish communities in Gaza and northern Samaria. Thousands of Jews have been made homeless by the plan. Many have lost their jobs, businesses, and livelihoods. Bush said the expulsion was “courageous and painful”, calling it an “historic step...