The Indy had a great article on Sharon’s plans this Sunday. There are a number of interesting points:
- The Sharon / Bush agreement says that over 50% of the Israeli settlers in the West Bank will be bribed to return to Israel proper
- Sharon wants to get rid of enough of the Hamas leadership to be able to say that it wasn’t them that caused the retreat. You can read a nice summary of why decapitation won’t work with terrorist organisations.
- A proportion of the remaining six settlements are likely to be disbanded over the next few years.
To my mind, this gives some comfort, despite the generally horrific state of affairs out there at the moment.