News from Around the World

US president George W. Bush, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas are certain the Israeli government did the right thing in uprooting Israel’s civilian presence from the Gaza Strip ahead of the final pullback of troops on Sept. 15. But their gratification is likely to be short-circuited by the rush of events on the ground. Already, Sharon is paying the price for his action. The praise he won from Bush and other world leaders for his courage in going through with evacuations is proving expensive: his Likud has set in train the first steps for his ouster, accusing him of deserting its principles by expelling Israeli communities for nothing at best, a heightened terrorist menace, at worst. His long-time challenger, Binyamin Netanyahu, translates Sharon’s courage and the praise thereof as “a headwind for Palestinian terror.”