Looking back on the whole disengagement mess in Israel I have to say I find myself honestly scared now. Not because we uprooted other Jews or the multitude of others reasons most anti-disengagement folk tried to use as arguments. But for the one reason that I refused to accept... that Israel would look weak and that the terrorists would see this as a win and a reward for their sick efforts. Frankly, I didn't care if the terrorists saw it as weak because we knew the truth and we knew the strength and character it took to take such a hard step. You want to think we are weak? Go ahead, Israel has put you in your place in more than one war and Israel can do it again.

What really made my jaw drop and ask myself what have we done?? was when I saw a quote from the Palestinian Leader..... their LEADER, like your president, my prime minister, whatever.... that said this: “Today we celebrate a real day of happiness. The Israeli army and settlers are withdrawing from Gaza because of the sacrifices of the Palestinian people of martyrs and prisoners. Tomorrow they will leave Jenin and after that the West Bank and Jerusalem". Abbas also said that the withdrawal was made possible by the “sacrifice made by those who’s homes were destroyed, all those who were injured, and of course by the blood of the martyrs and our brave prisoners. We now must do everything to build our homeland.””

Did you catch that? Their leader actually just said that the reason Israel withdrew from Gaza was because of the martyrs. Suicide bombers. Terrorists. He didn't say through careful negotiations or as a step on a path to peace... he told these terrorists that it's because of what they did. This is problematic for two reasons; 1) obviously because he practically just gave them the greenlight to keep up the tactic since he stated it works (2) this is a man struggling to get respect from his people and he didn't even try to take credit for this, which would have been the politically smart thing to do.
Oh and btw, notice he said that Israel would leave Jerusalem one day too.

So I guess it should come as no surprise then that Hamas (you know... the terrorist group that's actually calling the shots for the Palestinians) says Israel was humiliated by their efforts and therefore they plan to continue the attacks. They also warn that the Palestinian government should not try and stop them. Very nice.

Anyway... I was naive. I knew it was naive of me at the time, thinking this wouldn't turn into such a security nightmare..... but I wanted so badly to believe this was in Israel's best interest. As of last week I'm not so sure anymore. Now I fear for future attacks, more than ever..