Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a military man turned "peacenik," is unilaterally "disengaging" from the Gaza Strip. It's all over television, play by play -- the hardship Israel is enduring. Scenes of Israeli soldiers emotionally and physically struggling to remove the 8,500 settlers from the Gaza Strip is displayed while CNN anchors utter soft words in hushed tones in the background. The Israeli government has spent billions to protect and provide for the settlers. Now, Israeli soldiers must painstakingly carry off the flailing settlers who are still protesting the move -- the same soldiers to whom they once turned for help.
Should Israel be commended for dismantling the illegal settlements they built against international law, the will of the Palestinian people, and the effort to maintain peace? The corporate media's melodramatic portrayal, with close-ups of tears on the faces of settlers, would have the viewer believe that this is a major sacrifice on their part. The media are silent on a minor fact that the settlers had trampled on the rights of an indigenous people -- that they had lived in their fortresses of Israeli luxury in the desert of Palestinian impoverishment.
The settlers' departure from Gaza is indeed historic. Yet, it is not disengagement in the proper sense of the word, notwithstanding the corporate media's terminology. Gazan children may be able to play in the yard and Gazan wives and husbands can walk the street freely, but unfortunately their freedom ends there. Israel will control Gaza's air, sea, and borders as well as the movement of Palestinians entering or leaving Gaza. . . .
FULL TEXT: <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/kanazi200805.html>
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org> * Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud- ahmadinejads-face.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez- congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/ 2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>