Patrick's view is, I fear, a wee bit one-eyed. That said, I confess to much ambivalence about Sharon's evacuation of Gaza and four (4) - of many - West Bank settlements.

On the one hand I cannot forget Sharon's involvement in facilitating the slaughter in the Lebanese camps during the Israeli invasion in the early eighties. To my mind this makes him liable to prosecution for complicity in crimes against humanity.

On the other, as they say, only Nixon could go to China. Maybe only Sharon, with his own extreme right credentials, can carry enough of the Israeli far right loonies with him - despite many of them deserting him over Gaza - to actually make a workable peace with the Palestinians. The last Israeli PM who thought he had done this was of course murdered by a far right loony.

I harbor grave doubts about Sharon's bona fides, but am willing to wait and see whether he is actually dinkum. The alternative seems to be just more of the same and now, maybe, everyone's had enough of that to contemplate genuine compromise on the toughies - Jerusalem, refugee returns, settlers - that have derailed all previous attempts.

Mhoram

If the middle east is ever to be stabilised, and retain some semblance of order then the past needs to be forgiven (not forgotten). Sharon hopefully has recognised this, although the elimination of Islamic Jihad leaders over night does not help!

Having said this the Arabs/Palestinians aren't the only people who need to ask for forgiveness. For all the talk of terrorism in the Middle East lets not forget that the first terrorist groups were in fact Jewish, and led by a former Israeli prime minister (The Stern Gang/ Menachem Begin). Arab terrorism was largely a reaction to such movements, and the signing of the Balfour Declaration.

Of course Israelis suffer unimaginable torment on a daily basis, and live in constant fear. However is this any different to the plight of the Palestinians? The only difference I see is that the extremists on one side have a superb military to do their fighting (ultra orthodox jews aren't obliged to participate in national service), while those on the other side choose to blow themselves up to prove their religious credentials.

Meanwhile the moderates on both sides wonder how they have been caught up in all this religious nonsense! Come to think of it I'm betting that most Israelis are beginning to wish the UN had given them a slice of Africa (say Uganda) as their 'homeland'. After Idi Amin I'm guessing alot of Ugandans could be wishing the same thing!

I think many people miss the strategic significance of the withdrawal. The current security focus of Israel is their security fence. Gaza does not help at all in implementing a tightly secured perimeter. It is far to small and isolated.

Sharon can afford to withdraw from Gaza because it makes the Israeli position more defensible, with the additional benefits of being seen as working towards peace.

Ultimately though, the western media and academia will generally ignore any jewish compliance with road maps and continue to deride israel as the cause of the problem, even though palestinians have failed to live up to their side of the bargain EVERY time.

The Gaza settlers will be relocated to new houses in Israel? New plods of land to restart their lives? No doubt there will be some form of compensation for their pain and loss?

Palestinians have their farms bulldozed, the crops ripped out of their grounds, families thrown out to allow for their livelihood's destruction. Do they get compensated, relocated? No, that's right, they're the family members of suicide bombers, Hamas activists, no they deserve this retribution. After all, eye-for-an-eye.

But then, those family members seek out relatives, looking for a roof and a meal. Those relatives hear the story of how the big, bad Israeli in his shiny yellow bulldozer came across the border to tear down their homes. Then those relatives talk to their neighbours, who then spread the tragedy through their cafes, restaruants - low and behold, a cleric hears of it (Assuming the Palestinians don't have televisions). He sprouts out his calls for revenge, 'Time to blow up one of their theatres!' Eye for an eye. Isn't that a fundamental of Judaism. I've no idea.

Flip the coin, theatre goers get blown up, here we go with the families seeking comfort with relatives, who tell neighbours, so on and so forth until Sharon pops up with targeted assassinations in mind.

Is there not another way? It seems to me that Jews are beset with the idea of revenge, to dish what they copped during centuries of persecution. Palestinians seek revenge for the utterly deplorable situation their society finds itself in, rightly or wrongly citing Israel as the cause of that misery. And we assume people would prefer to fight rather talk. That they would prefer martyrdom rather dialogue, land rather than peace. So Sharon has withdrawn - why isn't this a positive? HAMAS have restrained their actions against Israel, but more importantly, against the PA, to allow for Abu Mazen's new rule to take hold - why isn't this a positive? Why are we so certain the blood will flow after this epic week in Gaza. Precedent? So set new ones. Sharon and the PA have started.

Nick I- Jews are not “beset with the idea of revenge”, as you say. You appear to be drawing most of your comments from a mistaken view of Judaism. Had you done this with something related to Islam, no doubt you would have been heavily criticised, but apparently no one has noticed your misinterpretation here.

http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/torah.htm

Wrighta (R u Jewish ?)

While I'm not a Jew myself, I have a very strong appreciation for the development of the covenenant beginning with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and for the most part, secular observers will not have any inkling of how the family lines of Ishmael and Isaac pretty much determined the polarization of today.

Hence they dismiss any Israelite claim to the Land as 'God Given'.

Hoping they will get it is a no win situation until blind eyes are opened by Grace.

I find it fascinating that there is a fairly strong movement in Israel for restoration of the Temple...
as the saying goes "That will be the day" (of rejoicing world wide)
But as I guess you also percieve it will most likely be the prelude to Messiah coming (for us the 2nd time, and for Jews the first).