History’s tragedies are not always found in what happened. Sometimes they lie in what could have been — visions abandoned, possibilities squandered, peace betrayed not by inevitability, but by choice.
Nowhere is that clearer than in Gaza.
In 2005 , Israel undertook an extraordinary political and moral gamble. Under the Disengagement Plan , conceived by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon , himself a former general and champion of settlements in the region, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip. Every soldier, every settler, every last trace of Israeli presence was removed. Twenty-one Jewish communities were dismantled. Thousands of citizens were evacuated from their homes by their own army. Synagogues were shuttered, cemeteries were relocated, and millions of dollars in gre