From TheHill.com….
What is happening between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza is an immense human tragedy. In just over a week, Hamas has fired about 3,500 rockets. At least 212 people have been killed in Gaza, 12 in Israel. It should not matter on which side of the border a funeral is held; a parent weeping for a child is the ultimate hopelessness. That is why I understand the fraught emotional arguments on both sides of the present crisis.
But lost in those emotions is this one, plain fact: Israel tried peace with Gaza by unilaterally withdrawing from the region in 2005. In return, it got rocket attacks.
In 2003, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed Israel’s full disengagement from the Gaza Strip. There was no peace treaty, accord, agreement or handshake. In August 2005, 14,000 Israeli military and police went into Gaza — not to attack Palestinians but to evict, with force in many cases, Jewish settlers. Jewish homes, workplaces, even greenhouses were dismantled.
Israeli authorities, fearing desecration of synagogues, removed religious articles. They even exhumed and relocated the 48 graves of the Gush Katif cemetery. By September 2005, 8,000 Jews were removed from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip. It was a painful moment for Israel — watching its own military drag their own citizens out in a gamble for peaceful coexistence.
