The main reason for the Gaza pull out was to pitch Israel as the concession and peace maker. 8,000 settlers lived illegally on 40% of Palestinian land in the Gaza strip, while 1.3 million Palestinians lived on the other 60%. The pullout was not a concession, it was Israeli finally, and just a little, abiding by international law. At the time, we were treated, via the mainstream media, to endless pictures of poor settlers being wrenched from their homes, with teary-eyed soldiers doing the hard job.
All of it was one big propaganda ploy, to convince us that Israel was making this difficult unilateral consession to palestinians, that they were giving Gaza back to the Palestinians and that Gazans were not free to decide their own future, and that it was now the duty of the palestinians to give something back. But nothing was said about the fact that the settlers were illegally living on stolen palestinian land and that they were getting, on average, $200,000 per family to relocate to Israel.
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Joe
