What a difference 20 years can make.
It was precisely two decades ago this month, on February 20, 2005, that the cabinet, under then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, voted 17-5 to uproot thousands of Jews from their homes in Gaza in what the media euphemistically referred to as the “Disengagement Plan.”
Six months later, defying strategic logic, Jewish history, and basic morality, as well as common sense, Israel pulled out of Gaza and turned it over to our enemies, setting the stage for the eventual Hamas takeover and all the horrors that followed.
A total of 21 Jewish communities were destroyed, and their 10,000 residents were forced to leave the lives, businesses, and homes they had struggled so heroically to build.
On the eve of the withdrawal, Sharon declared, “It is out of strength and not weakness that we are taking this step,” sounding as though he was trying to convince himself as much as the public that the folly of retreat was somehow noble and necessary.
The experiment of expelling Jews to bring about peace proved to be an utter disaster, just as opponents of the idea had predicted. It did not satiate the Palestinian appetite for land, nor did it moderate the bloodlust and hate of those seeking Israel’s destruction.
Instead, it had the opposite effect, reinforcing the belief among our foes that if you fire enough rockets or send sufficient suicide bombers, the Jews will eventually tire and depart.
When the time comes to investigate the failures that brought about the Oct. 7 calamity, it is essential not to overlook the original sin of the 2005 Gaza withdrawal.
Had Israel not pulled out, Hamas would never have been able to seize power and turn Gaza into a launching pad for the worst pogrom since the Holocaust.
Knowing now what we do, if we could employ a time machine like Marty McFly and Doc Brown in Back to the Future and return to 2005, nearly all Israelis would surely seek to alter the events of that fateful year.
Unsurprisingly, Hamas utilized the past 20 years to further radicalize the Palestinians, educating an entire generation to hate Israel with even more diabolical and theological passion.
Photos on social media of young Palestinian kids in Gaza holding rifles larger than themselves as their parents look on proudly tell you all you need to know about the extent of indoctrination that has taken place.
Indeed, even if Hamas is completely defeated, disarmed, and disbanded, it would not solve the larger problem of having a hostile population drenched in Jew-hatred adjacent to southern Israel.
How Donald Trump has flipped the script
And therein lies the boldness and genius of US President Donald Trump’s plan, announced on February 7, to encourage Gazans to migrate elsewhere and start anew in a move that would be good for them and for Israel.
Conceptually speaking, Trump has flipped the script in the Middle East.
In 2005, Gaza Jewry was forced to leave, but the move failed miserably to ease tensions, in no small part because they were not the aggressors.
The Jews of Gush Katif built communities and hothouses, not terrorist training camps and car bombs.Now, in 2025, the US president has forced the world to confront the hard truth that the only way for Gaza to cease being a source of violence and terror is to encourage Palestinians to leave.
One cannot help but think, as Israeli singer Shmulik Kraus’s 1982 hit put it, “Oh, how the wheel turns.”Implicit in Trump’s vision is an unvarnished recognition that the responsibility for the ongoing conflict lies with Palestinian rejectionism, which is the argument many of us have been making for years.
Sure, there are those who have been quick to denounce Trump’s plan to resettle Palestinians, hurling epithets such as “ethnic cleansing.”
But these very same self-appointed paragons of virtue were busy clinking their champagne glasses back in 2005 when Jews were expelled from Gaza. So let them huff and puff all they wish because their hypocrisy is apparent for all to see.
Personally, while I welcome the president’s initiative to voluntarily resettle Gaza’s Palestinians elsewhere, I oppose the idea of America taking over the territory.
Gaza is part and parcel of the Land of Israel, and it belongs to the Jewish people. Our forefathers sojourned in Gaza, Jews lived there down through the centuries, and despite being expelled seven times over the past two millennia, they always returned.
If anything, once the Palestinians are resettled elsewhere, Gaza should be annexed to Israel, to which it rightfully belongs.
But in the meantime, we should all be grateful to the Trump administration for turning the tables on decades of failed groupthink and reminding the world of an elementary truth. The absence of peace is not due to the Israelis who seek it but rather to the Palestinians who have always opposed it.
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.