Mr. Olmert’s plan to extend the policy of unilateralism by removing up to 70,000 Israeli settlers from the West Bank, behind the separation barrier, also appears moribund. The rocket wars have made the barrier look flimsy, and one year after Ariel Sharon and Mr. Olmert pulled 9,000 Israeli settlers unilaterally out of Gaza, many onetime supporters of the plan say that critics like Mr. Netanyahu appear to have been correct — that the disengagement provided little security or stability.
The plan to hand over more territory in the West Bank to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority that could use more sophisticated rockets to hit Tel Aviv is now being dismissed as folly by many in the center, not just on the right — an unexpected gift to the settler movement.
“A year after the withdrawal of Gaza, there is a huge ‘I told you so’ hanging in the air, and it’s hard to argue with, when Qassams are still flying out of Gaza and nothing has moved forward,” said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian. “Like Oslo, Gaza disengagement was a good idea, but it was managed very badly. But instead of criticizing the management, we criticize the thing itself.”
Itamar Rabinovich, a former ambassador to Washington and president of Tel Aviv University, said bluntly: “Two notions have died. First, unilateralism, and second, separation by the fence. Missiles dwarf the fence.”
Gee, but couldn't he quote some voices from the right?
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