I wrote the following article several years ago, and was reminded of it by an observation made about Gaza and the Palestinians today. Gaza was allowed to be autonomous by Israel, and has also received billions of dollars in aid. With this money they could have built a prosperous enclave, but instead built tunnels and bought weapons. The Palestinians are driven by destructive hate as described below. But there is also a lesson for those who do not think Scripture is important.

Ten (now nineteen) years ago President George W. Bush, along with others, pressured Israel to give up land in Gaza in return for “peace.” The area was known as Gush Katif (“Harvest Bloc” in Hebrew) and was responsible for $200 million in high quality produce sales each year. It is estimated that Israel lost $450,000 daily in revenues because of the destruction of Gush Katif.

On August 13, 2005, the evacuation of Gush Katif began. The forcible removal of 8,600 residents from their homes was done by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The homes were destroyed. The Israelis had too much respect for the synagogues to destroy them, but the Palestinians happily did the job when the land was given to them.

On August 22, 2005 the last of the residents were forcibly removed from their homes. On August 23, 2005 Hurricane Katrina formed and forcibly removed thousands of Americans from their homes, creating $108 Billion in damages in the process. Some persons believe this was the result of the Lord’s promise to Abraham; “Those who curse you, I will curse.” (Genesis 12:3)

The Jewish Press, a U.S. based publication, provided the following information regarding the persons involved in the tragedy of Gush Katif:

• Six months after the expulsion, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who initiated the operation, suffered a debilitating stroke that put him into a coma from which he did not recover and led to his subsequent death in 2014.
• His son, Omri Sharon, a Knesset member, one of his father’s closest advisers on the Gush Katif plan, was convicted close to the time of the operation of falsifying corporate documents and perjury, and sentenced to seven months in prison, never returning to politics afterwards.
• Israel’s President, Moshe Katsav, who chose the eve of the deportation to preach sanctimoniously to the settlers about respecting the decisions of state authorities and accepting their plight, was forced to accept the decision of the authorities himself, having been sentenced to seven years in prison for sex crimes against his female employees.
• Ehud Olmert, a minister in Sharon’s government and a major supporter of the evacuation plan, who replaced the ill Sharon as prime minister, was later tried in connection with several scandals, for two of which he has been sentenced to a combined term of six years and eight months in prison.
• Sharon’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who carried out the disengagement plan and was one of its biggest supporters, watched his political career diminish rapidly, until he failed to make it into the Knesset last March and was forced to announce his retirement from politics.
• IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who led the displacement operation, which he named “Operation Determination and Sensitivity,” proved to be an abysmal failure when he wasn’t facing civilians in the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah Second Lebanon War, was humiliated by the Winograd Committee that investigated the IDF failures, and resigned even before the committee report was made public.
• Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi was severely criticized by the Zeiler Commission report on a variety of issues and resigned in disgrace.
• Police Southern District commander Uri Bar-Lev, who ran the police forces at the evacuation, came under investigation for sexual harassment and resigned. Also, in appropriate fashion, three years after Gush Katif, Bar Lev’s own home was demolished by bulldozers, having dropped into a sink hole.