The Gaza Pullout: A Single Step is Not a Solution

Today, the forced pullout of settlers from some far-flung illegal settlements has begun, but as the Democracy Now program ably pointed out today, this is hardly the great step toward peace that people make it out to be.

Most Israelis are said to believe that the end of the most far-flung of these settlements is not a step towards peace and may be nothing more than a consolidation of settlers into other, better areas. They understand that this does not end the occupation, and its the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians that is at the heart of all of this. But most Israelis never approved of these settlements, which were mostly populated by religious zealots who came from other countries (many have big homes here in the US), funded in part by our tax dollars, and paid these folks huge stipends to stay there even though it worked against any effort at peace.