HAS UNILATERALISM RUN ITS COURSE?

Has Unilateralism Run Its Course? - Rafael D. Frankel

"The rise of Hamas has made [further] unilateral withdrawal even more complicated," said Yossi Klein Halevy, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center. "On the one hand, the logic of unilateralism, that there is no partner for peace, has been confirmed, but so have the security warnings of the opponents of unilateralism. We're not going to be withdrawing from the West Bank and leaving a void behind. We're going to be withdrawing and bringing Iran up to our borders." The prospect of an Iranian-allied Hamas army sitting within Katyusha range of all the major Israeli population centers, and shoulder rocket firing range of airplanes landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, is a major reason for the precipitous fall in support for unilateral disengagements. 

But there are many other factors. The West Bank was never viewed in the same light as Gaza by many Israelis. Only 8,000 Jews lived among 1.3 million Arabs. Moreover, Gaza was not the crucial security corridor that the West Bank is, nor were its sand dunes once home to the tribes of Israel, as were the hills of Judea and Samaria. (Jerusalem Post)