August 15 — The Israeli Experiment

Tuesday, August 9th, 2005 11:30 pm by Neal

The answer is coming soon. Starting on Aug. 15, the Israeli government will evict some 8,000 Israelis from Gaza and turn their land over to the Palestinian Authority. In addition to being a unique event in modern history (no other democracy has forcibly uprooted thousands of its own citizens of one religion from their lawful homes), it also offers a rare, live, social-science experiment.

That is the observation from Daniel Pipes — a leading scholar on the Mideast — in his essay, Today Gaza, Tomorrow Jerusalem.

The withdrawal from Gaza is a complex political puzzle, but Pipes describes the short-term effect as “Israel’s one-car crash”. The smell of “appeasement” among the Palestinian leaders supports this conclusion. To observers of the war against Islamic facism, and of the Middle East in general, this event is HUGE. Why, it’s as rare as a free election.

Stay tuned.

One Response to “August 15 — The Israeli Experiment”

  1. tom Says:

    For nearly 40 years the territories Israel CONQUERED after their country was invaded have been labelled “occupied territories” by the media.

    What an amazing country Israel is. They gave up nearly 2/3s of THEIR land to Egypt (Sinai Pennisula) for peace. Now another half may go to the Palestinian to build another tenuous peace. What kind of genetic make-up do the Jewish people have to endure the thousands of years of abuse they have been subjected to to continue to thrive in their ever-shrinking corner of the world.

    If the Palestinian State becomes a reality with the Israeli appeasement, may there be as long a peace between Palestine and Israel as there has been between Israel and Egypt–tenuous though it may be.