SHARON ON GAZA

"I also recommended the establishment of several Jewish settlements, Jewish 'fingers' as I called them, to divide the Gaza district....all of them built, like the Judean and Samarian settlements, on state-owned land. Standing with the cabinet members on a high hill of dunes, I pointed out exactly what I thought we needed. If in the future we wanted in any way to control this area, I told them, we would need to establish a Jewish presence now. Otherwise we would have no motivation to be there during difficult times later on. In addition, it was essential to create a Jewish buffer zone between Gaza and the Sinai to cut off the flow of smuggled weapons and — looking forward to a future settlement with Egypt — to divide the two regions....The essence of my plan was to get rid of the Palestinian refugee camps altogether." (From Warrior, the autobiography of Ariel Sharon, 1989, p. 258).

And what has changed since Sharon, as Minister of Agriculture in the Begin government, pushed for the creation of Jewish settlements in Gaza following Israel's abandonment of Sinai? Have weapons stopped flowing from Egypt? Is the need to assert control over Gaza less or has the need vastly increased in the decade since Oslo unleashed the full fury of Arab terror on Israel?

While Sharon never got rid of the Palestinian refugee camps, his policies are in danger of turning the Jews of Israel into a nation of refugees.

MORE FROM COLUMBIA

A gallant group of Jewish students has rocked the comfortable anti-Israel boat at what The Daily News calls "Hate U-on-the-Hudson." With the help of the David Project in Boston they have produced a 25 minute documentary "Columbia Unbecoming" in which present and former students give examples of the abuse they were forced to undergo, notably in classes in the Middle East and Asian Languages and Culture Department. For example Joseph Massad, who teaches modern Arab politics, repeatedly refused to answer a question from Tomy Schoenfeld, an Israeli student, instead demanding that he answer "How many Palestinians have you killed?"

Prior to the film, student complaints had been wafted away. Students were told to take their complaints to the department head but got short shrift from department chairman Hamid Dabashi, a signer of one of the divest-from-Israel petitions that have stained U.S. campuses. But the documentary has forced Columbia President Lee Bollinger (formerly of the University of Michigan), to reluctantly order an "investigation." It is foolish to expect much. As Matthew Continetti in National Review sums up: "By any traditional standard Lee Bollinger is the worst college president in America."

PERES THE PROFOUND(LY STUPID)

There is no surer proof that an Israeli leader is endangering the state than praise from Shimon Peres. Peres urged Labor Knesset members to support Sharon's destruction of Jewish settlements in Gaza: "To be rid of isolation is to be rid of an asset? To be rid of war is to be rid of an asset? Dangers are what we are getting rid of." In fact, of course, dangers are what Israel will be increasing exponentially.

As for Arafat's demise, this is Shimon's take: "The biggest mistake of Arafat was when he turned to terror. His greatest achievements were when he tried to build peace." In fact Arafat used the folie a deux of Peres and Rabin known as the Oslo Accords to improve his strategic position. Palestinian Arab analyst Yunis Odeh recalled after Arafat's death: We told Arafat that Oslo would mean termination of the Palestinian cause: Arafat replied that on the contrary "I am hammering the first nail in the Zionist coffin."

AN UNREPORTED SANDAL

As the media feast on scandals from Abu Ghraib to mistreatment of wounded terrorists, a more grievous scandal has gone unnoticed: the release of prisoners to kill again. As Mark Landsbaum points out in FrontPageMagazine (Oct. 27), more than ten of the 200 terrorist suspects released from Guantanamo are known to have struck again. A few examples:

Abdullah Mehsud, 28, used his new freedom to organize the kidnapping of two Chinese working on Pakistan's Gomal Zam Dam project. Previously unknown, he is now Pakistan's most wanted man and a hero to al Qaeda supporters. Another released detainee killed a judge leaving an Afghanistan mosque. Several other released detainees have been killed in the course of terrorist acts.

As Landsman notes "The fact is terrorists are running free in Afghanistan and potentially around the world because the Legal Left placed their 'inalienable rights' above the safety of Americans. Institutions like the Center for Constitutional Rights, the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild do this out of a hatred of this country and all that she stands for -- and in this instance, they are literally 'softening us up for the kill.'"