OK, so the hitnatkut is playing out pretty much the way the right said it would. We're back in Aza, what little diplomatic credit we might have had has dissipated, our deterrence is gone and our security is compromised. I don't expect hitnatkut supporters to admit that they were wrong. Those who wished to prove their virtuousness by compromising tribal interests (on the backs of others) still feel virtuous. Indeed, the greater the suffering of the tribe, the more evident their virtue.

But, to be fair, I suspect that there is something disengagement opponents are thinking but not saying, so let me say it. We pilloried and cursed Sharon for months. But during the latest crisis, as we watch the in-way-over-their-heads pair of Olmert and Peretz doing their Laurel and Hardy routine, who has not thought to himself: where the hell is Arik when you need him?