I remember at the time thinking that Israel pulled a clever stunt by pulling out of the Gaza Strip. All the grief they were getting, with nothing to show for it. What a great idea to just head off and let them stew in their own juices. The so-called meltdown in June 2006 suggests that they were right.
But the graph above shows that it perhaps wasn't so clever. Rocket attacks are up. This is not proof of a correlation, but it is pretty telling. Hamas has amassed a striking tally of suicide attacks, but this has tailed off a little of late perhaps due to Israel's petulant and unreasonable decision to build a wall to keep them out.
Most people will agree that the wall is a bad thing, but for this one side effect. Perhaps the anti-wall campaign will succeed soon, but my bet is the Israelis are pretty happy with it. Even the French seemed positive. Could it be that the best route to a rebuilt economy for the Palestinians is peace? It has happened before.
Hat tip: Power Line
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