Controlling Gaza Strip to control withdrawal

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wasn't wrong Wednesday when he closed the Gaza Strip to Israelis who don't live there. If anything, the closing came too late.

Opponents of the government's plan to withdraw have been entering Gaza for weeks, with the hope of stopping -- through violent resistance, if need be -- what some call the "ethnic cleansing" of roughly 7,500 Jewish settlers from land that Israel has occupied since 1967. As next month's withdrawal got closer, more protesters would have joined those living in empty buildings. On Monday, they had planned to stage a massive march. Opponents already had staged demonstrations within Israel that included the blocking of roads at rush hour.

In fact, Israel is acting decades late. For years, successive governments have indulged settlers, prolonging the idea that the country would continue to subsidize their lifestyle and pay for their security among 1 million Palestinians. That attitude postponed the day of reckoning that came last year when Mr. Sharon proposed that Israel leave Gaza. He has been accused of trying to distract attention from a family bribery scandal and of planning to use the departure as a way to keep more land in the West Bank. Whatever the motivation, Israel will be better off out of Gaza, just as Israel is better off out of Lebanon, a unilateral departure that occurred in 2000 under Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Closing Gaza also will make it harder for suicide bombers to carry out an attack that might disrupt the withdrawal. A bomber from the West Bank breached Israeli security this week and killed five people in Netanya. Just as Mr. Sharon faces the challenge of his long career in the withdrawal, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas must use his security forces between now and the withdrawal to stop potential terrorists.

Most Israelis favor withdrawal from Gaza, but the issue is very emotional. One question is whether many members of the Israeli Defense Forces will refuse to evacuate the settlers. IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz called the soldiers' job in Gaza a "national mission." Opponents dispute that term because there was no national referendum.

Israel wants $2.2 billion from the United States to help pay for the withdrawal. The money makes sense only if Gaza settlers go to land within Israel and withdrawal is not part of some West Bank land grab. The U.S. government also indulged those settlers far too long.