Quote of note:

"If I think rationally," he said, "I know I have to prepare myself to go, because it might happen. But the irrational side is causing me to freeze in my place and take no action. Something could happen, some outside event - who knows? My wife and I try to talk about it; she looks at me and she doesn't have to ask."

Please, think rationally. It's the irrational side that made you start the illegal settlements in the first place.

Jews in Gaza Recoil at Idea of Expulsion
By STEVEN ERLANGER

NETZER HAZANI, Gaza Strip - The green tanks in their berms and the protective walls around the Israeli settlements here are surrounded by yellow daisies and deep pink oleander. But this is probably the last spring for the Jews of Gaza.

Slogans and bumper stickers denounce Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a dictator and an enemy of the Jewish people, on a par with Nebuchadnezzar and Titus, who destroyed the first two Temples. Most cars fly the orange-and-blue flags of those opposed to Mr. Sharon's plan to dismantle all 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and to help the nearly 9,000 people here find new homes and new lives.

The late winter sun is California bright, and a salty breeze comes off the nearby beaches, which the settlers here can see but not visit.

Except for two small areas, the beaches belong to the 1.3 million Palestinians of Gaza, who will soon, if Mr. Sharon gets his way, inherit these community centers, schools and hospitals, which were built by the settlers, with government backing, to lay claim to the biblical land of Israel. With so many Palestinians and so few Jews in Gaza, Mr. Sharon and his aides contend, defending the settlers here is too expensive and difficult, both militarily and diplomatically.

If the Israelis here do not leave on their own, in late July their own police and army forces will begin to remove them, in an operation expected to take three to four weeks.