Gaza Stuff

There's plenty of good stuff being blogged about the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, which so far has gone very well. One piece I'll add a link to is Martin Kramer's:

"In leaving Gaza and putting up a high barrier there and in the West Bank, Israel has spurned the messianism of the far right and the universalism of the far left. It's still inspired by the model of the classic nation-state, in which the dominant nationality enjoys a clear majority and lives behind impermeable borders. Today Israel is reaffirming its faith in that model.

The problem is the weakness of Palestinians who share that faith. In leaving Gaza to the Gazans, Israel hopes to compel the Palestinians to mirror Israel. It's a gamble: people like Haj Rashad don't call the shots. Israel will soon find out whether, in the person of Abu Mazen, it has found someone who does."

The more I think about this, the more I think it's likely to be more significant for Israeli self-definition than as a means of ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.