Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, deserves praise for forcing the settlers in Gaza off the land and out of the homes that he encouraged them to settle and to build over 35 years ago. As he admitted in his televised address to Israel on Monday evening, he ‘hoped we could forever hold on’ to the settlements in Gaza — and he certainly encouraged the unfortunate settlers he sent there to share his hope.
Until very recently, Mr Sharon was one of the leading advocates of the policy of settling Jews in the areas occupied by Israel after its victory over its Arab neighbours in the 1967 Six Day War. In Gaza, however, the costs of defending an archipelago of 8,500 settlers in a sea of over a million hostile Palestinians have proved to be too great. Mr Sharon has now recognised that — in Gaza at least — the settlement policy was an unsustainable mistake.
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