The "Celebration" in Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Joyous Gazans flooded into empty Jewish settlements Monday and Palestinians climbed ropes and clambered over walls to the Egyptian side of this border town to join a chaotic celebration of the end of 38 years of Israeli military rule over the Gaza Strip.

Plans by Palestinian police to bar crowds from the settlements quickly disintegrated. Militant groups hoisted flags, fired wildly into the air and set abandoned synagogues ablaze, illustrating the weakness of the security forces and concerns about their ability to control growing chaos in Gaza. The pullout is widely seen as a test for Palestinian aspirations of statehood.

Egyptian security forces stood by and let the crossings take place, describing it as a "humanitarian" gesture to let people separated for years reunite. Security officials also suggested the crossings would be short-lived as Egypt deploys 750 heavily armed troops to secure its border with Gaza.

Israeli soldiers long guarded the high walls splitting the Egyptian town of Rafah against cross-border infiltrators smuggling weapons and other contraband from Egypt into the volatile Palestinian territory. But within hours of the Israeli withdrawal, hooded Palestinian militants toting guns stood atop the Palestinian wall as grinning Gazans climbed over to meet relatives.

…"I came here because the Palestinian people have sacrificed a lot and it was Hamas that led this sacrifice," said one man identifying himself only as a Palestinian Muslim.

...The last column of Israeli tanks rumbled out of Gaza just before sunrise, completing the withdrawal code-named "Last Watch." Troops locked a metal gate and hoisted their flag on the Israeli side of the border.

"The mission has been completed, and an era has ended," said Israel's Gaza commander, Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the last soldier to leave the strip.

As soldiers poured out of Gaza throughout the night, jubilant Palestinians rushed into the abandoned settlements, turning the night sky orange as fires blazed. Women shrieked in joy, teens set off fireworks and crowds chanted "God is great!"
"Today is a day of joy and happiness that our people were deprived of in the past century," said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, adding that the Palestinians still have a long path toward statehood.

It’s hard for me to view this “celebration” as anything but ominous.The complete lack of control, the wild gunfire, the blazes, the hooded, gun-toting Palestinian militants, and the flags of Hamas waving joyously don’t give me much confidence for a peaceful future in that region.

The Israeli settlers, some there for three generations, were ripped from their homes. They were forced to abandon the graves of their loved ones. All of this heartache was inflicted in order to follow the “road map” to peace.

Will Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza really be a step toward harmony between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East?
It could be a harbinger of peace if a legitimate home for Palestinians was being established. I worry that statehood for Palestine will amount to the establishment of statehood for a terrorist haven.

Palestinians have responsibilities in this process. So far, Abbas has not been impressive.

ROME, Sept 12 (Reuters) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged "to control the chaos in Gaza" by the end of the year in an interview published on Monday that coincided with the completion of an Israeli pullout from the territory.

But Abbas told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, one of whose reporters was abducted but quickly released by gunmen in Gaza on Saturday, that he would not try to disarm the powerful militant group Hamas to assert Palestinian Authority control.

"There is no point at the moment, it would be a useless step that would be destined to start a civil war," Abbas said, despite a call in a U.S.-backed peace "road map" for the Palestinian Authority to confiscate "illegal weapons".

..."Give me until the end of the year and I will be able to control the chaos in Gaza," Abbas said. "Now that the Israeli pullout is completed, we will be able to better deal with the problem."

...Abbas praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for having taken a "very important and courageous step" in removing 8,500 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

But he warned Sharon against trying to trade Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, for a permanent hold on larger areas of the occupied West Bank where 245,000 Jewish settlers live isolated from 2.4 million Arabs.

"If this happens, even the pacification of Gaza has no future, we will fall again into the circle of violence and terrorism," he said.

Abbas appears blind to the fact that the circle of violence and terrorism has not been broken. The area of the circle that gives birth to terrorism has just expanded.
Hamas claims that Palestinian factions agreed to destroy the synagogues.
Hamas has been emboldened by the “victory” in Gaza.
Is Abbas so naïve that he sincerely believes anything other than the total elimination of Israel will pacify these terrorists?

Are we to believe that Hamas will simply go gently into that good night of peace?Hamas has stated their goal—the destruction of Israel.

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was issued on August 18, 1988. It is comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which call for the annihilation of the state of Israel.

Surrendering Gaza or the West Bank to the Palestinians won’t be enough. Clearly, that won’t satisfy the terrorists.

It is incumbent upon the Palestinians, the good people, to prove that what they want is a homeland, not the destruction of Israel. They have to show that they are willing to live in peace with their Israeli neighbors.

As long as Hamas has a presence in the region, that will be impossible.

For the terrorists, this isn't about land. It's about destroying the state of Israel through Jihad, Islamic holy war.

[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility. (Article 13)

At this point, I don't think the withdrawal from Gaza is reason to celebrate.