Shocking pollsters and pundits around the world, Israel's Likud party took a moderate stance today and voted to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza strip and a large portion of the West Bank. While Sharon had done everything except give up, including sending messages to the Bush administration seeking to reassure them that he would abide by the agreements they reached in April, regardless of the result, his Likud party, which polling had indicated would not accept the measure for being too "soft", stood by him and voted it up. Instead of being forced to seek a national referendum on the issue now, the withdrawal will begin almost immedietly.
Disengagement supporters were attacked at the polls by the hardliners, but that didn't stop them from approving the plan. Not even the grisly drive-by shooting of an pregnant Israeli mother and her four children could stifle the desire for a workable solution by the Likud voters. Meanwhile, in the Gaza strip, elated Palestinians danced in the streets, while non-Israelis in the West Bank reassured themselves that this was only the beginning.
Can peace be far away?
Or, at least, that's what I hope to be able to say in a few hours when the votes are tallied. Unsurprisingly, it seems that most of the Likud party feels that unilateral withdrawal wont work, and that maintaining IDF troops on the strip and the Philadelphia route means that separation isn't really acheived.
The lucky reader may vote in the unofficial poll below, however.