Former Gaza settlers feel vindicated as war rages

NITZAN, Israel, Aug 11: Yehuda Gross feels a grim sense of vindication as he watches pictures of Israel's wars in Lebanon and Gaza from the pre-fabricated home where he has lived since being forced from his Gaza settlement last year.

A year since Israel began its evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, the hopes of many Israelis that the pullout might bring better security have been shattered by the return of troops to both Lebanon and Gaza.

The descent into conflict has also set back, if not wrecked, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan for a withdrawal from some of the settlements in the occupied West Bank if peacemaking with the Palestinians remains frozen.

''People will have to be blind not to see that when Gush Katif fell it was the first front-line to go,'' said Gross, referring to the main bloc for the 8,500 settlers who were pulled out of Gaza last year.

Gross, 48, like other opponents of the Gaza pullout, had argued that it would embolden militants dedicated to destroying the Jewish state, and give up land that many settlers view as a biblical birthright.

The withdrawal began on August 15, 2005 and was completed on September 12, when troops left after 38 years. Gaza was captured in the 1967 West Asia war.

The aim of the Gaza plan, engineered by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was to unilaterally give up the territory that Palestinians seek for a state -- along with the West Bank -- as a way to break from years of conflict.

PULLOUT HAD SUPPORT When Sharon collapsed into a coma in January, his support was high in large parts thanks to giving up Gaza.

But weeks after Sharon disappeared from the scene, there was a political earthquake on the Palestinian side with the election victory of Hamas Islamist militants, who had spearheaded an uprising and refused Western demands to disarm.

Tension grew steadily and on June 25, the armed wing of Hamas joined two other militant factions to tunnel under Gaza's border to Israel and seize a soldier. Israeli forces pushed into Gaza three days later to try to recover the soldier and end a rain of makeshift rockets. The war with Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon followed a similar raid on July 12 in which two soldiers were captured, and eight killed. Israeli forces returned to south Lebanon six years after withdrawing from the area to end a 22-year occupation.

''Every territory we withdraw from is another problem,'' said lawmaker Arieh Eldad, who helped lead anti-pullout protests last year. ''Israel is much weaker -- we have proved to our enemies that we may collapse under pressure.'' The sentiment is not shared only by those on Israel's right.

Support for the war in Lebanon is at well over 90 per cent of Israel's Jewish population while the peace camp has shrivelled.

Against the backdrop of the war in Lebanon, talk has been shelved on Olmert's election manifesto plan to give up isolated settlements in the West Bank while keeping the biggest ones.

''I still think we made the right decision,'' said Amit Greenberg, 34, a hi-tech industry worker from Tel Aviv, referring to the Gaza pullout. ''Having said that, there is no chance of further pullbacks at the moment. This will take time.'' Although Palestinians oppose the unilateral aspect of a West Bank withdrawal they fear would deny them a viable state, the alternative is that Israel will give up no more territory at all in the near future.

''The only lesson learned from Gaza is that unilateralism does not work,'' said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

But peace talks are not a likely option even if the current bloodshed ends, particularly with Hamas in power.

''Every Israeli withdrawal has led to a massive increase in the military threat,'' said political analyst Gerald Steinberg.

''The security half of the equation has to be totally rethought and the Israeli population will not be willing to consider anything else until we get to that stage which may be years away,'' said Steinberg, of Israel's Bar-Ilan University.

WORRIES Settlers and their supporters remain worried that talk may turn back to a West Bank evacuation once the war in Lebanon is finished. The symbols of protest remain strong at Nitzan, where Gross and hundreds of others live in temporary homes.

The orange flag of their former regional council flutters everywhere in the newly created village, built just up the coast from Gaza on a former tomato farm. Street signs commemorate the settlements from which they came.

Although the former settlers are entitled to compensation, many have had trouble adjusting away from the heavily subsidised and highly fortified enclaves where they used to live. Some have not found space to unpack belongings.

Some families have now been joined by relatives from northern Israel, fleeing bombardment by Hizbollah rockets that have driven hundreds of thousands of Israelis from their homes or into shelters.

''As I watch people fleeing from the north, I relive my own expulsion over and over again,'' said Rachel Saperstein, 65, another former settler. ''You cannot placate the Arabs.''

REUTERS