Israel too is about to make a fateful decision

The Israeli Knesset will vote today on whether to accept Prime Minister Sharon’s plan to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. The issue is an agonizingly difficult one (Sharon has called his decision the most difficult of his life) and the debate could hardly fail to be acriminious. The editors of the Jerusalem Post, who have relunctantly endorsed Sharon’s plan, issue a plea that the result of the Knesset vote be respected.