Linkage

 

GUSH KATIF, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli police stormed a hotel in a Gaza settlement on Thursday and ejected 150 radical Jews who had hoped to form a bastion of resistance to Israel's planned withdrawal from the occupied territory.

 

Commandos scaled ladders to enter the barricaded seaside hotel after the army declared a closed military zone in Jewish settlements in Gaza to put an end to an influx of ultranationalists bent on scuttling the August withdrawal.

 

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed Israel would block far-right Jews from obstructing the pullout, denouncing them as "thugs who try to terrify Israeli society and tear it apart by violence against Jews and Arabs."

Sadly the discussion just isn't going to be as lively without our old buddy.

Nice move by Sharon to remove some of the settlers. I just wonder if this is a means by which the Israelis believe they have a better chance at annexing the W. Bank instead of Gaza.