NOT CALLED THE BULLDOZER FOR NOTHING:

Speed of Gaza pullout boosts Sharon: As evicted settlers lick their wounds, opponents of the withdrawal policy have been left reeling (Chris McGreal, August 20, 2005, The Guardian)

It turns out that Jews do expel Jews after all, and without the descent into anarchy predicted by leaders of Israel's once indulged settlers. Following dire warnings that the forced removal of 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank would provoke civil war, bring down the government and open an irreversible rift between the army and the people, opponents of the pullout have been left reeling by its speed and relative ease.

The army originally said it would take six weeks to clear the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four smaller ones in the West Bank. As more families signed up to take the money and leave, the military revised its estimate down to three weeks.

In the end it took less than three days to clear all but a handful of the doomed settlements. Kfar Darom, among the most religious and militant of Israel's Gaza colonies, made a relatively violent stand but it was still emptied in less than a day. [...]

A minority screamed jibes of Nazi at the security forces and teenage girls lectured them on democracy, religion and how "Jews don't expel Jews". The security forces surprised everyone by reacting with dignity, patience and sympathy in the face of this verbal onslaught. Sometimes the taunts degenerated into racism against Ethiopian-born soldiers.

Mr Sharon seemed to speak for most of the country when he said: "I'll remember the faces of the men and women soldiers who stood silently and did not react to the curses and insults lashed at them."

If the settlers had listened to themselves they'd have realized that if jews don't expel Jews they certainly don't resist expulsion in any serious way.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 20, 2005 12:00 AM