Israel
Contemplating Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank… that much ballyhood 1967 line.
… I hear that citizens of Israel Proper roll their eyes at the citizens of the settlements. Or, the more cosmopolitan Israelites. The settlers are The True Believers, who live there and want to keep expanding throughout all of what is considered Palestine. The total effect is creepy. Turn on TBN and you’ll see happy stories of Christian fundamentalists helping out Jewish fundamentalists to move to the settlements.
The great problem commences: See here: Palestinians watched the drama in satisfaction from the rooftops of their nearby homes. “I’m standing here without any fear that Israelis will shoot at me because their battle today is against themselves,” said Mohammed Bashir, a farmer in the town of Deir al-Balah, near Kfar Darom. Unilateral as the move is, Violent Extremists will view it as a victory and… onward to Greater Palestine! (Beyond which, there is something a bit creepy about a government deploying military force with its own citizens. I hear that such a byline is written deep within the contract a US Enlistee signs — the pages and pages of which that are rarely read.)
(The paradox I view the US as facing in Iraq, actually… there, the need is to get somewhere beyond the frame of the phrase “cut and run” — suggesting a victory for — um — “Islamofacists”(??) — more importantly the part of the “Resistance” that is fighting more than just simply the “Occupation”, while actually… leaving the place. The key problem there is that for the neocons, there’s no need for an Exit Strategy becaus eIraq was an Entrance Strategy.)