Word: gaza
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...way?become the man to reconcile the Israelis and Palestinians once and for all. That was his campaign slogan: "Only Sharon can bring peace." And people inside and outside Israel began to believe it after Sharon, the man who once planned and nurtured the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, had them forcibly evacuated last August, enabling Israeli troops to leave and turning the entire Gaza Strip at last over to Palestinian self-rule. In the weeks before Sharon's debilitating stroke, rumors abounded that he was preparing to make bold withdrawals in the West Bank as well...
Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip served the interests of peace, although that was perhaps not why Sharon carried it out. His emissaries suggested that he quit Gaza?a sandy, squalid quarter to which few Israelis feel any attachment?to win goodwill in the world in order to strengthen Israel's claim to its more valued settlements in the West Bank. Media reports recently suggested Sharon was prepared to unilaterally draw a border in the West Bank between Israel and what might become a Palestinian state, emptying Jewish settlements that fell on the wrong side. It's an interesting...
...Sharon's credentials as an uncompromising hawk meant the public trusted him to make painful concessions for peace, even if "peace" for him involved imposing territorial boundaries without the negotiated assent of the Palestinians. That process began last August, with Sharon's decision to withdraw Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. Although there were celebrations in some cities and towns of the West Bank at the news of the Israeli leader's faltering condition, Palestinian officials acknowledged that a less formidable Israeli leader may not have the courage and popularity to allow them a Palestinian...
...future looked relatively sunny for this corner of the world. The constant fear of Palestinian suicide bombings has largely dissipated from Israeli life, and Israel's economy emerged from a long slump to become one of the fastest growing in the developed world. Prosperity and the success of the Gaza pullout boosted Sharon's political confidence. When the angry right of Likud hamstrung his government after the Gaza evacuation, he asked Israeli President Moshe Katsav to dissolve the parliament and call for early elections to be held this March. Then he took an even bolder gamble: he bolted the Likud...
...Jerusalem rather than at the ranch??the world grappled with the prospect of life after Sharon. His departure from the political stage has sucked the air out of the peace process for the immediate future. No one, left or right, expects a quick follow-up to the Gaza disengagement or an early return to the negotiating table. Sharon's 60 years of fighting on Israel's front lines gave him inimitable clout to stand up to the minority religious-nationalist movement that has long maintained a stranglehold on national policy. "I cannot see anyone today who can build...