Disengagement: Who's Fault?

On July 12, of last year, I was browsing a few stores, with my friends, in a Hasharon mall in Netanya, Israel. We didn’t stay very long, but when we did finally get back to one of my Israeli friend’s apartments (which was about 30 minuets walking distance); we got a phone call that the entrance to the mall had been blown up by a suicide bomber. I still had friends in the mall. Later we found out that there were five fatal casualties and 90 people were injured. I was thankful to learn that none of my friends were physically hurt thou we were all in psychological pain.

Today, after a recent election in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Hamas (considered freedom fighters by the Muslim world and terroist by Israel, United States, and the European Union) has taken fifty-six percent of the seats in the Palestinian Legislature. This may become a problem for the people living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank because foreign nations (including Israel and the United States) have removed funding that were used to support the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Some Muslim countries (Iran and Syria for example) have stepped up donations to the Palestian Liberation Organization. Now, most recently, Islamic Jihad, another terroist/freedom fighter organization, has orchestrated another terrorist attack that killed nine people in Tel Aviv. This being the first attack since Hamas took control of the PLO; an attack witch Hamas has openly celebrated. This most recent attack is the deadliest attack against Jewish Israelis since an attack in Beersheba in 2004, where 16 people were lost their lives.

Most people, of western thought, blame this violence on Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other "Jihadist" groups in Israel/Palestine. I think that some of the blame needs to go to the former Likud party, under the formal control of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In November of last year, Sharon formed the Kadima party (now the strongest party in Israel’s Knesset) after heavy confrontations with members of the Likud party, including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over disengagement.

Disengagement was a really hot topic over the summer of last year. Israel, under the control of a coalition led by Ariel Sharon, had plans to remove the ten thousand Jews from there homes in the Gaza Strip and norhern West Bank. Despite mass protest by civilians and soldiers the disengagement went better then planned (taking only three weeks instead of the expected two months.)

This did cause one very big problem, in my opinion. It gave Hamas something to rally for. They took credit for the disengagement saying that it was because of the terrorist attacks (orchestrated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad) that Israel decided to leave the territory. This, I believe, is why Hamas won the election for control of the PLO. Now, the Kadima Party (which is under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s control because of Ariel Sharon’s unfortunate coma) wants to go threw with stage two of disengagement where Israel will remove some 250,000 Jewish residents of the West Bank. I only fear for what repercussions will come from such an action; especially when parts of East Jerusalem (a holy city for all three religions of Abraham) are disengaged.