When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

More from the Arab News:

Freeing just five percent of occupied land and involving just 21 of 150 illegal settlements, the Gaza withdrawal is not a marvel or a miracle or a painful concession as the Israeli government and settlers would like for the world to believe. Because Gaza is so unsafe, so barren, so poor, and of no strategic benefit... its loss is of no consequence to the Israelis or to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who ensured that the price he had to pay was as low as possible.

Translation: This land sucks. It's not worth fighting for.

Yet Gaza remains in Israeli hands. Despite the amount of deceptive packaging, while the debate goes on over the fate of the rubble of the Jewish settlements, whether Hamas will claim control over Gaza or if President Mahmoud Abbas has what it takes to rein in the organization, Israel has made no effort at all to hide the fact that it will retain control over the borders of Gaza, whether land, air or water.

Translation: It should be ours. We'll fight you for it.

As I said before, absolutely nobody thinks this evacuation of Israeli settlements in Gaza would actually stop the conflict in that region. What was the point?

In my previous Gaza article I also noted something else that seemed fairly obvious - that the Palestinian Authority would not be strong enough to maintain order in Gaza after the Israelis left. Time will tell on that one, but the tone of the last paragraph of the Arab News editorial seems to support what I said.

QUICK UPDATE: USMCGunny68 has an aol journal that starts out with a great take on a news report that Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have been taking heat from Arab viewers for their coverage of the Gaza evacuations (it's too sympathetic). Gunny quickly degenerates into a rant that I won't endorse but I am willing to send readers to check out.