Now, do you understand ‘unilateral’?

Oh boy, has Ariel Sharon been given plaudits in the west for his “courageous” decision to withdraw from Gaza…
Trouble is, too few policymakers in the west have any real understanding of the difference between Sharon’s dedication to pursuing his policies in both Gaza and the West Bank on a totally unilateral basis, and the pursuit of any kind of a negotiated peace.
Al-Jazeera has a very moving little 20-pic slideshow on its English-language website that shows what “unilateral” really means for the people of Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip.
“Where they make a desert, they call it peace” (Cornelius Tacitus, about the actions of those early empire-builders, the Romans).