Sharon has made plans to evacuate all Israeli settlers from Gaza, and most from Samaria. Some accuse him of trying to distract attention from his domestic political woes, notably a bribery scandal. But I also think that Sharon, while a Likudnik ideologue, is first and foremost a Zionist and a military man–seeing no hope for a reasonable settlement with the current Palestinian leadership, he wants to withdraw Israel to defensible boundaries, defensible not just militarily, but in the sense that they won’t overtax Israel’s civilian economy and civilian morale by requiring extended reserve duty tours by reservists (Israeli males serve in the reserves for many years after their required military duty).
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