Trading Land For No Peace

The deadline has come and gone for the settlers in Gaza to vacate, and Israel's problems are only just beginning. I frankly don't understand why they would give up any of the land won in the 1967 war, given the small size of the country to begin with. Someone in the Israeli leadership obviously believes that they can trade land for peace, but not if Hamas has anything to do with it (h/t LittleGreenFootballs):

Speaking to al-Hayat newspaper, Mashaal was quoted as saying on Tuesday that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as “the beginning of the end for the Zionist program in the region.”

The Hamas leader reiterated the movement’s commitment to the calm with Israel until the end of the current year, but added the “resistance is a strategic choice, because the withdrawal from Gaza is the first step in the way to complete liberation.”

The Damascus-based official stressed that “Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants the Gaza exit to be the first and last, and the payment for the continued control in the West Bank, settlement construction, wall construction, and the annulment of any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state within the framework of the Zionist project to end the Palestinian issue with the unlimited US support,” adding “We, however, see the withdrawal as first step for full liberation and achieving all of our legitimate rights. Today Gaza and tomorrow the West Bank and later every inch of the land.”

I fear Israelie Isreali pullout will simply be construed as a sign of weakness by the Palestinian terrorists, Israelat Isreal has only bought more trouble for itself with this deal.