More than three years after the “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, Israeli President Shimon Peres admitted it was a mistake. Peres addressed the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Wednesday and said, "We need to draw lessons so as to not repeat the wrongs we did in Gaza, and the way in which we pulled out. Gazans are now shooting their own people, and I think; what if I was mistaken?" He added, "Whatever will happen in the future, we shall not repeat the mistakes we made in leaving Gaza," "It should have been done otherwise. I was for leaving Gaza. I consider myself as one of the persons mistaken."
CBN News reported on the “disengagement” during that hot summer of 2005. Nearly 9,000Jews were forcibly evicted from homes, farms and businesses many had spent a generation building. Families with belongings packed in trailers, cars and vans created scenes reminiscent of John Steinback’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” At that time, American families suffering through the Great Depression fled the Midwest’s Dust Bowl of 1930s and made their trek to California.
But in 2005 Israeli Jews didn’t flee economic hardships from Gaza; on the contrary, many were prospering with booming agricultural enterprises. Instead, a policy touted to bring peace and stability to the region brought more violence and chaos. Since the “disengagement,” Hamas and other Islamic terror groups fired thousands of rockets and mortars into southern Israeli towns. The recent Gaza war was Israel’s attempt to stop those rockets.
Now Hamas rules Gaza and Gazans with a brutal regime. Despite Peres’s admission, he still believes in plans for a future Palestinian State. Many Israelis hope that – if a Palestinian State is established one day – Peres won’t be admitting one more mistake.