Gaza Pullout Displays New Scars for Palestinians and Israelis

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/international/middleeast/22israel.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th


New York Times
Gaza Pullout Displays New Scars for Palestinians and Israelis


By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: August 22, 2005

snip
The group's militants think Mr. Abbas needs more testosterone than ammunition, and they think that the more he hesitates, the more the younger generation, like Muhammad Dahlan in Gaza and Jibril Rajoub in the West Bank, let alone the jailed Marwan Barghouti, will continue to pay him lip service while looking past him toward their own ascension.

But Mr. Abbas thinks it wiser and more effective to co-opt Hamas into politics, through municipal and then legislative elections, now scheduled for Jan. 25, and bring them into the Palestinian Authority, where responsibility can temper ideology.

It is a risky gamble, made much harder, senior Israeli officials say, by the effective silence of Arab states about the Gaza withdrawal, and their limited willingness to provide aid to Mr. Abbas in Gaza.

"We've only got a window of two months to move forward together with the Palestinians," said Mr. Prosor, of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, citing the pressures of Israeli and Palestinian politics, with elections coming in both. "This is really the time to strengthen the Palestinian moderates, but I'm not sure they're going to have the upper hand," he said. "It's time for Arab states to show support for Abbas - to say and do something to indicate that something positive has happened with Israel pulling out of Gaza."