Mr. Sharon's Giant Step

[DemFromMem]

From today's NY Times editorials - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/opinion/24thu3.html?th

Mr. Sharon's Giant Step

This page has long been very wary of any moves by the Israeli government to further consolidate land it seized after the 1967 war without negotiations with the Palestinians. So we were a little queasy about the way Prime Minister Ariel Sharon coupled his plans to withdraw Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip with further work on the barrier that Israel is constructing to block itself off from its Palestinian neighbors.

Some Sharon observers are already likening the Gaza pullout to a chessboard-worthy move. Seen in that light, Mr. Sharon is sacrificing Gaza in return for the world's acceptance of Israel's "de facto annexation of 7 percent of West Bank territory," as a political columnist, Nahum Barnea, theorized in Yediot Aharonot, a Hebrew-language daily. "Sharon has not become a dove," Mr. Barnea wrote. "He has remained what he always was: a pragmatic hawk."

But whatever bird Mr. Sharon has chosen to emulate, it would be churlish to greet his historic decision with anything other than enthusiasm. The prime minister has risked enormous political capital in boldly going where his predecessors feared to tread: agreeing to evacuate settlements without first wringing something out of the Palestinians.

Thanks to Mr. Sharon's efforts, optimism and hope is spreading throughout Israel, and that can only be a good thing. It gives a boost to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and it further isolates Mr. Sharon's right-wing Likud Party members, particularly the finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the minister for Jerusalem affairs, Natan Sharansky.

<snip>

I'm sure the no-peaceniks on this board will quickly respond to attack Sharon (or Abbas) and claim nothing has changed. It has.

[Colorado Blue]

1. I think it is a heroic move and my prayers are with

Sharon and the people of Israel/Palestine.