Residents of the Bronx are ethnically and linguistically similar to those of Californian suburbs. They share the same history, goals, and enemies. Even so, no reasonable politician would apply to them similar prescriptions. Yet Israel insists on treating Gaza and the West Bank as a single entity. Such an approach won’t work. Palestine drifts into a split into two failed states: Hamas’ Gaza and the pro-Jordanian West Bank.

Egypt has no habit of refusing land acquisitions. It confronted Sudan over a minor border dispute, but readily abandoned its right to the Gaza Strip. The place is not worth acquiring when it includes a million Palestinians with it. Those are the worst Palestinians: 59 years away from their land, refugees living in cramped camps on the UN handouts, lacking either employment or any prospect thereof, seething with hate and resentment, claustrophobic as in a prison cell, with no connection to the outside world, used to weapons and violence - they represent the ultimate human waste. That’s not a reason to kill them, but a good reason to abandon them and their territory. Sharon knew the Gazans better than anyone: as a military governor, he managed to keep Gaza quiet with drastic police actions. Sharon had good sense to disengage from the Gazans; he erred by evicting the Jews rather than the Arabs from Gaza.

Gaza is overcrowded, unemployed, humiliated, and drastically different from the relatively peaceful and affluent West Bank. Gazans are driven to the edge. Unemployed Gazans breed huge families on international welfare. Jews severely restricted their movement to the West Bank and their labor migration to Israel. The desperate Arab population supports radicals and breeds suicide bombers. Young Arabs with no life opportunities, with no money to marry, readily die for high ideals. Gaza, a notoriously irreligious place, quickly becomes a hotbed of Islam. Palestinians, unable to achieve anything in this life, look for otherworldly goals. They see no benefit in living, and aren’t afraid of dying; they take suicide missions matter-of-factly. Israel and the UN let the steam out of Gaza with humanitarian aid, prolonging the suffering. Either push them to an explosion, or let them live – which they cannot if Gaza remains isolated. Israel pushes Gazans to the wall and offers them the only hope of relief through terrorism. Not surprisingly, Palestinian terrorists killed more Jews in the six years since Oslo then in a similar period of Intifada before the Oslo. Jewish casualties in terrorist attacks exceed the Yom Kippur war’s 7268. Militant groups fight Israel as the only way to curry support among Palestinians. Hamas or the PIJ cannot better the Palestinians’ lives, and fighting Israel is their only electoral platform.

Very few Palestinians engage in terrorism, and many others rat on them to Israeli security services, but the few are enough to perpetuate terrorism – and other Palestinians who quietly hate Israel support them. Palestinians, weary of war and hardship, might elect moderates, but the brewing discontent would continue churning out suicide bombers. Palestinians, actually, did vote for moderation – but not for moderates because none are available. In the conundrum of hatred and discontent, terrorism and retaliation, unemployment and propaganda, moderate parties cannot arise; it took the WWII devastation and years of stability for moderate parties to appear in Germany. Only 4% of Palestinians voted for the PFLP – strictly a guerrilla group with no immediate political agenda. Pre-election polls indicated that Hamas’ 44% electoral support included about 15% non-decided; only a third of Palestinians supported Hamas months before the elections. A drop of public support for Hamas during its clashes with Fatah shows that many Palestinians voted for Hamas – a charity, anti-corruption, and decent Islamic organization rather than a guerrilla group. Of the 41% of Palestinians who voted for Fatah, some imagined that Abbas would bring peace with Israel while others simply voted for the currently ruling party; 15-20% of any population always votes for the governing party. The most telling thing about the Palestinian 2006 elections was a 3/4 voter turnout in Gaza. Such a turnout is high for most countries, but note that Gazans are largely unemployed; elections are a form of entertainment for them. That a quarter of Gazans abstained from voting shows their deep frustration with all political parties. The Arabs of Gaza hate Israel and would love to see her destroyed and themselves returning to their old villages. They cheer attacks on Israel, but prefer a minimally safe life for themselves. They enjoy Hamas’ struggle with Israel, but hate Israel’s retaliation. Gaza’s Palestinians would love to live in peace and affluence. In practice, that’s not possible. Gaza is just not a viable territory.

Israelis are used to primitive moralizing which presumes that one side is right, and another – wrong. Jews, therefore, consistently picture the Palestinians as hateful terrorist scum with no right to the land. But try visiting Palestinian refugee camps. Their residents dream of Palestine so strongly that the dreams are hardly distinguishable from reality. They talk of their grandparents’ villages they never saw but which exist in their dreams, of the number of olives trees and sheep they had. They are ready to fight and die for the land – and kill, too. They are honest, determined people made to live unbearable lives. The Jews need this land, and have to expel the Arabs to make a Jewish state. That’s a fact of life. But the other side has a strong moral position.

Israel made a zoo out of Gaza; she gives Palestinians water and food, but keeps the place closed. The most prominent feature of a zoo is the overwhelming disparity between guards and animals. When Arabs bark with homemade Kassams, Israelis fly in on fighter jets and attack helicopters and punish the Palestinians with precision rocket fire. Animals in the zoo have to accept their lot, but become angrier day by day.

The zoo is profitable to its keepers on both sides. Abu Mazen’s son owns six companies in Israel. Barak gave Arafat a gas field to lease to British Gas for kickbacks. Israel’s secret police officer Yossi Ginossar handled Arafat’s accounts in Israel. Shin-Bet officers do business with Palestine. Israeli oligarchs monopolized the commodity trade with Palestine. The IDF declared that invasion of Gaza poses no threat for kidnapped Cpl. Shalit, even though he is held by the extreme Palestinian militants; such certainty reveals an astonishing degree of cooperation between Israeli security services and Palestinian terrorists. The Shin-Bet security service catches almost all suicide bombers even though the guerrilla operations are highly secret; officials of the terrorist groups betray their suicide bombers to Israel in return for large rewards. Terrorist groups refrain from attacking Israel’s soft underbelly – foreign Jews and Israelis abroad – in return for Shin Bet’s normally not arresting top officials of the terrorists.

Palestine was quiet until Shimon Peres brought the PLO from Tunis. Israel supported the PLO against Hamas, and later supported Hamas to contain the PLO. Hamas predictably won, ascending in a political tide too strong to control militarily: Palestinians want an honest government which, in that context, could only be Islamic – atheist Palestinian leaders see no reason to abstain from corruption.

Stop oppressing the Palestinians. A frightened skunk doesn’t smell good. Kick him out of our backyard.