Israel is staging a big farce around its disengagement from Gaza and the dismantling of illegal settlements, built on occupied lands, to produce the wrong impression that it is making a huge concession to the Palestinians. The settlers have been creating scenes of anger and resistance, completing the drama by evoking references to the holocaust.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a pioneer and a long time promoter of the settler movement, has tried to give his own emotional twist to the issue, saying he understood the pain of the settlers (they are to be provided hefty compensation and alternative housing).
Thus the usurpers of the Palestinian rights and lands are being portrayed as victims who are being forced to make sacrifices for the sake of peace. In reality, the Gaza pull-out is a wily move on Sharon's part. As he himself said last week, "This plan is good for Israel in any future scenario. We are reducing the day-to-day friction and its victims on both sides."
These remarks actually explain the reason why he has ordered a unilateral pullout. The aim is to deflect international pressure to hold negotiations with the Palestinians for a comprehensive peace settlement.
The drama and the media publicity it has generated is meant to show to the outside world that he is voluntarily giving up Gaza settlements out of goodness, whereas the truth of the matter is that these settlements are located deep inside the Palestinian territory and, therefore, are difficult to protect. Which is why, as he himself mentioned, they have been a source of day-to-day friction.
Hamas' fighters have been regularly targeting these illegal settlements in retaliation against Israeli attacks on their residential districts. In fact, Hamas has claimed credit, not unjustifiably, for the dismantling of the Gaza settlements. Though the Palestinians - Hamas as well as the Palestinian Authority President, Mehmood Abbas - have hailed the Gaza pull-out, they have termed it as a first step towards a final peace settlement.
That is not Sharon's plan. He intends to use it to stall a negotiated peace settlement, which is plain from his assertion that "the world awaits the Palestinian response - a hand offered in peace or continued terrorist fire", and that in case "they choose fire, we will respond with fire more severe than ever."
This surely is not the language of a peacemaker. Besides, despite international pressure not to do so, he has continued to build settlements on the West Bank as well as the separation wall that cuts through Palestinian lands and homes. And so far as the Gaza Strip is concerned, there is no guarantee that Israel will not walk in again if it decides to "deliver a fire more sever than ever".
The only way forward is for Israel to work towards a comprehensive peace settlement with the Palestinian Authority leadership. Unless and until it is prepared to do that, as per the international roadmap, drawn by none other than its own patrons in Washington and supported by EU, Russia and the UN, the Jewish state cannot expect to live in peace.
Fortunately, a majority of the Israelis are said to have come to the realisation that their country must give up the occupied Palestinian lands in exchange for peace. But a vocal minority of extremist Jews, who trot out their claim over the Palestinian lands straight out of the Old Testament, have held back the peace process.
These people need to be dissuaded from asserting their Biblical claims if there is to be a durable peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
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