Nobel Peace Prize for Sharon
There's really not much to say about Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, planned and directed by Ariel Sharon, but I want to say something.
There may be no precedent for a country, that has defeated all its enemies in war, withdrawing from part of the conquered territory with no guarantee of peace, but in the hope that this is a step toward peace. The Israelis were aggressive in pulling the pieces of their country together in the 40s and 50s, and they have a policy against granting any new citizenships to Arabs, even or especially those whose families lived in "Palestine" before the creation of Israel. But the Israelis have not acted like imperialists. They were repeatedly attacked by enemies who denied them any right to existence; and they won. The West Bank and Gaza were the spoils of a war that Israel did not start.
And now: Sharon as leader of a country, and to some extent leader of the Jewish people, is asking some of his own people to sacrifice land, homes, the lives they were building for their families. The supremely disciplined Israel Defence Force is carrying out a very difficult job, with no weapons, often in tears. The Security Wall seems to be doing some good; small pieces of the West Bank are being sacrificed, but that is all at least for now--until the Palestinians make some significant concessions.
The Israelis are on the side of humanity, and Sharon deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
I just bought the issue of the Atlantic with an article chronicling what a disaster Arafat was; I may have more on that later.
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