Gaza withdrawal

Ariel Sharon began his promised pullout from Gaza on Monday and threatened Palestinians with Israel's harshest response ever should they attack once settlers have been evacuated.

In a televised address coinciding with the start of the withdrawal, the Israeli leader told Gaza's 8,500 Jewish settlers he shared their pain but also understood the plight of the 1.4 million Palestinians in the coastal strip.

"We cannot hold onto Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon," he said in the five-minute address.

"The world is waiting for the Palestinian response -- a hand stretched out to peace or the fire of terror. To an outstretched hand we shall respond with an olive branch, but we shall fight fire with the harshest fire ever".

Source: Reuters
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Hydra speaks:
Some people wonder why a hardline politician like Sharon would initiate the Gaza withdrawal, wiping out settlements he once helped building up. A while ago when Sharon announced his plans, everyone thought that it was the best thing that could happen to the peace process. In reality, the unilateral policy of Sharon has taken away any chance of progress in the peace process. A couple of reasons are:

1. By pulling out of Gaza without a mutual agreement in the context of peace negotiations, Sharon has created his state an opportunity to deny any further territorial compromises in the future. The world could hear a pre-announcement of this policy during the Bush-Sharon press conference directly after the planned withdrawal was announced. Bush stated in this conference that, in deciding the future borders between Israel en Palestine, one needed to consider the “existing reality on the ground”. Subtitle: “…forget about the 1967 borders, after this withdrawal, much of Palestinian land will remain under Israeli occupation, because there are simply to many Jewish settlements in areas once belonged to Palestinians…”.
2. As Sharon himself said, future Palestinian aggression will be severely punished. Of course, the Palestinian aggression will not end after this, simply because Sharon’s withdrawal plan does not satisfy Palestinians’ needs. Sharon is justifying future aggression towards the Palestinians in advance. And what exactly is “Israel's harshest response ever”? Can it get worse than the Sabra and Shatila massacre?