[singpilot]

You'd have to go back to 1957, maybe even to 1947 to see how this came about.

The Israelis have to give up Gaza; there was no way to defend this island of settlements at a reasonable cost in the midst of all the surrounding Palestinians. It was territory won in the '67 war. Parliament (the Knesset) voted to turn it back, houses leveled, to the Palestinians as well as several settlements on the south end (Gaza side) of the West Bank. Again elected officials (representative of the majority of Israeli voters) approved the plan called for in the 'Road Map' to peace.

Most of the ACTUAL residents evacuated on schedule, with a minor civilian protest. The media event today was people who infiltrated into the Gaza settlements in the last 2 weeks and who wanted to be on TV being dragged kicking and screaming away from territory they had never seen before. Was an embarrassment for everyone involved. The women that brought infants and children in harms way should be arrested and their maternity subjected to a court review.

I have been in this part of the world a lot, as recently as last month. At night in TelAviv, with the windows open in the high-rise hotel room, I could hear the whomp of mortars landing in the Golan Heights, overlooking the city.

There is a plan in place there. Everyone has an agenda, sometimes at odds with the plan. If everyone would just give the plan a chance, it might just work. Not everyone will be 100% happy, but Israel trading land for peace is the only way the Palestinians will get a land to call their own. And the Israelis might get a rest from the shelling.

The Palestinians, to their credit, have been laying low, trying to let the Israeli Army clear the settlements without having to be armed in case of attack. Everyone is showing remarkable restraint. Except the orange clad Israeli infiltrators. Watch the TV coverage closely. The kicking and screaming intensifies when there is a camera in view.