Hva er det Gaza-planen egentlig handler om? Norske medier hamrer på at det ikke er noe positivt, men en sleip måte for Sharon å holde fast på Vestbredden. Med et slikt perspektiv blir det bare passe spennende om han får den vedtatt. Det hele reduseres til et politisk spill.

I virkeligheten er det mye mer som står på spill:

«This is one of the most historically important moments in Israel’s history since 1948, and certainly since 1967,» he said. «This is not about Gaza – this is the opening of a major debate about Israel’s soul. We are for the first time since 1967 discussing what Israel is, how it shall be governed, and how we define ourselves. Is Israel a secular democratic state, or a state governed by Jewish religious law? We are debating the borders of Israel, its long-term survivability and the very nature of the Jewish state.» Tuesday was also the ninth anniversary, by the Jewish calendar, of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and his son, Yuval, spoke movingly of the similar dilemmas his father had faced over the Oslo accords. He said the essence of the Parliament’s decision Tuesday was the same as over Oslo: «It is the realization of the need to separate from land, from settlements and from a home.» Sharon, he said, «joins his predecessors, Menachem Begin and my father, who had led similar processes that entailed painful concessions.» Like their decisions, Rabin said, Sharon’s decision «cannot become a consensus. Decisions that enjoy complete support are merely decisions that are easily made.»

Asher Susser, the director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East Studies, thinks that Shalom is disingenuous.

I tillegg kommer Arafat sykdom og trolige død. Det ligger an til store forandringer.