Israel: No pullout before US holds vote

JERUSALEM -- Israel will wait until after the US presidential election in November to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip, a security official said yesterday, while soldiers sealed the West Bank and Gaza Strip amid new warnings of attacks by Palestinian militants.

SNIP

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz of Israel decided not to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip before US presidential elections in November and will brief US officials on his position during a trip to Washington next week, a security official said on condition of anonymity. Israel has said it would withdraw from much of Gaza and parts of the West Bank if peace talks remain frozen in coming months. The United States has not rejected the plan outright, but has expressed reservations about unilateral actions. The US-backed "road map" peace plan calls for a negotiated agreement.

Earlier this week, Dov Weisglass, a senior Sharon aide, discussed the proposed withdrawal with top US officials. The Maariv daily said yesterday that US officials pressed Weisglass for the delay, fearing the pullout could spark chaos at a time when the Bush administration wants to avoid further upheaval in the Middle East.

However, Sharon adviser Assaf Shariv said yesterday that no dates for a possible withdrawal were raised during the meetings with US officials.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/03/06/israel_no_pullout_before_us_holds_vote/

Can someone help me to understand this? From what I can understand from this article, the move out of the West Bank and Gaza would have happened after the Jewish holiday on Monday, so I'm assuming that moving in was just a temporary measure. Please set me straight if I'm not interpreting this correctly.

If this article is true, it appears that this policy is an attempt to assist Bush in the presidential election.

:eyes:

They'll manufacture some other excuse to maintain the occupation.