Safety for the settlers

Editorial

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is apparently musing about removing settlements from the West Bank and Gaza, though reports remain clouded. Rumors suggest the Israeli leader may be ready to relocate settlers to locations within the boundaries of Israel proper - especially from those settlements that are outside the currently-under-construction security fence.

As usual, Sharon's critics see dark and evil motives behind his actions. If settlements are removed from the "other side" of the fence, the "facts on the ground" will be more deeply entrenched, with the fence determining the de facto permanent border of Israel, critics allege. Sharon's intentions can only be ill, therefore the dismantling of settlements – something critics have demanded for years – is not to be celebrated but criticized. Always the critics demand Israel's complete withdrawal, complete pacifism and complete capitulation as a starting point in negotiations, while not even the simplest act of good faith is demanded of the Palestinians.

If settlements are dismantled in areas outside the security fence, it is seen as merely part of Sharon's evil intent to absorb the rest of the settlements – which are inside the security fence – into a greater Israel. This view is typical of Israel's critics in the Arab and Muslim worlds, at the UN, in the EU, the United States and here in Canada. Incremental steps – the currency in trade of international diplomacy – are never enough: Dismantling some settlements, rather than all settlements, is not a starting point for peace, in the eyes of critics, but proof of ill intent.

Sharon's plans, if reports turn out to be true, are exactly appropriate. The idea behind the dismantling of settlements outside the security fence is to ensure the safety of the Israelis who live there and the IDF soldiers whose lives are put at risk by protecting those Israelis. The protection of Israeli citizens and the preservation of Israeli lives must be the Israeli government's top priority. If dismantling settlements aids in reaching that end, they should be dismantled – not as a reward to the blood-thirsty terrorists but as part of the larger imperative, which is the protection of Israelis.

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