<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/opinion/13wed2.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print&position=>
The New York Times April 13, 2005 EDITORIAL Summertime in Gaza f the chatter among the Israelis and the Palestinians is anything to go by, this is going to be a July to remember in the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority is planning to hold local elections in just three months. Unlike the election in January that made Mahmoud Abbas president, these elections will include Hamas, the part-time terrorist and part-time civic organization that has been the bane of Israel for so many years. As if that weren't enough, the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is planning to start carrying out his controversial plan to remove Israelis from the Gaza Strip and a handful of West Bank settlements. Handled properly, the Gaza withdrawal could re-energize prospects for peace in the region like nothing else since, well, the death of Yasir Arafat. But, this being the Middle East, the disengagement also has the potential to throw the region back into turmoil and violence. Both Mr. Sharon and Mr. Abbas must stand fast against extremist factions among their own people to make sure that does not happen. Mr. Sharon must figure out how to manage the opposition to the removal of the 8,500 settlers who live among some one million Palestinians. The opposition may not be widespread, but it certainly will be vocal and perhaps violent. The prime minister has already had a taste of the emotional baggage this will bring. During what his aides told the Israeli press was an overwrought session last week between Mr. Sharon and settlers from Gush Katif, Mr. Sharon listened, with clenched jaw, as the settlers hurled one accusation after another. One said his 12th-grade son was so distraught that he had quit school. Another said his son had quit an infantry course because he didn't want to command the evacuation of settlements. Ordering young Israeli soldiers to evacuate some settlers forcibly will be another challenge for Mr. Sharon. Yet another settler told the prime minister that his daughter had been injured and his nephew murdered in terror attacks. "In light of all these tragedies, do we also deserve this punishment?" he asked. Mr. Sharon has to answer unequivocally: it's not an issue of punishment, but rather one of necessity. The settlements that have sprung up outside the 1967 borders - described by one Israeli official as Israel's "playing cards" for negotiation purposes - have done much to create the untenable situation that exists today. Israel fell in love with its playing cards, the official admitted. But to have peace, Israel must give up most of those cards. Mr. Sharon gave no ground on Monday in the face of President Bush's insistence that Israel should not go ahead with plans to build new houses in the settlement of Maale Adumim. But Mr. Bush was absolutely correct in publicly chiding Mr. Sharon by saying the "road map clearly says no expansion of settlements." Replacing Gaza with a larger Maale Adumim is not the way to peace. Mr. Abbas, for his part, will have to do much more than just sit on the sidelines and watch the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. He must figure out a way to stop his fellow Palestinians from shooting themselves in the foot - as they are prone to do - by attacking the Israeli settlers on the way out. Mr. Abbas would do well to rein in Palestinian extremists who believe they must show the world that they are driving the Israelis out by stepping up their attacks as July nears. Unless the Palestinians want Gaza to be the last Israeli withdrawal instead of the first, it would behoove them to act sensibly. -- ----------------- R. A. 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