As Jews around the world mark the New Year with the holiday of Rosh Hashana, the prime minister of Israel is warning publicly of the possibility of a civil war in the Jewish state. The trigger would be the debate over whether Israel should withdraw its settlements from Gaza, as Mr. Sharon has suggested, and, eventually, from parts of the West Bank.
Mr. Sharon's decision to seek a full withdrawal from Gaza cannot have been an easy one. The area is described in the Bible as part of the land God granted to Israel, and Jews have lived and flourished there for thousands of years. Though there may be individual exceptions, the Gaza settlers are not a movement of wild-eyed lunatics, as they have often been caricatured. The historical and religious arguments that undergird their presence there are profound and not all that different from what justifies the Jewish claim to the rest of Israel.
Interesting, and disturbing.
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