This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
As part of the Republican Party’s campaign to protect Americans through a secure border with Mexico, they are pushing for a ban that would prevent the feds from removing razor wire the state of Texas has installed to protect its citizens.
Areport from Fox News explains the plan is from rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga.
His legislation would ban federal authorities from removing razor wire or other barriers from the U.S.-Mexico border.
That follows a narrow ruling from the Supreme Court that said federal agents could, in fact, endanger Texans by taking down the security barrier.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been in a pitched battle with Joe Biden and has dispatched the state National Guard to protect state citizens from the invasion that Biden has allowed to come across the border.
”President Biden is aiding and abetting illegal aliens who are swarming our border and raiding our country’s resources,” Collins explained. “Why else would he try to stop the state of Texas from turning them back to Mexico?”
The proposed Restricting Administration Zealots from Obliging Raiders, or "RAZOR," Act specifically prevents federal authorities like Customs and Border Protection from removing barriers erected by any state.
Biden has demanded that federal agents cut the barriers state officials have put in place to protect the state’s citizens.
Following the Supreme Court decision, Abbott also pointed out that Biden had failed to uphold the nation's compact with Texas “by allowing an invasion of millions of illegal immigrants under the Biden administration.
Abbott charged, “The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting states, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them.”
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
With the world-famous Groundhog Day approaching Feb. 2, there's a fresh effort to replace the animal used in the shadowy weather prognostication in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
And this time, PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is hoping the public flips literally for their new idea.
"Beyond a shadow of a doubt," the group says, "a groundhog's weather prediction is no more accurate than flipping a coin. And PETA has quite the coin trick up our sleeve to urge compassion for a groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil.
"He is not a meteorologist and deserves better than to be exploited every year for tourism money."
Each year on Feb. 2, during a time when groundhogs typically hibernate, a ceremony takes place to note if Phil will emerge and predict an early spring, or six more weeks of winter if his shadow is seen.
The animal-rights activists wrote to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's president, Tom Dunkel, "offering to toss the club a giant coin if it agrees to send Phil to a reputable sanctuary. Should kindness prevail, the huge coin could easily replace him as the Pennsylvania town's gimmick to draw in tourists."
The group claims, "Every groundhog is someone," noting the critters "are shy, solitary animals who socialize with other groundhogs only to choose a partner. They are skilled swimmers and climbers and create complex, multichambered burrows that even have separate 'bathrooms.'
"They don't want to live in confinement in a local library, where they can't do anything that's natural and important to them. They also don't want to be used to prognosticate the weather or be exposed to flashing cameras, human handling, or noisy crowds.
"Phil is an individual who, although intelligent and self-aware, can't predict the weather. Even if he could, keeping him or any other animal imprisoned for a cruel annual gimmick is abusive."
PETA says for more than a century, "The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club has exploited a groundhog on February 2 – when they'd naturally be in hibernation – and pretended that they're giving a weather forecast."
"Tim Roche, a meteorologist at Weather Underground, has even observed that from 1969 on, Phil's overall accuracy rate is about 36%. 'Even if you flip a coin, you'll still be right close to half of the time,' Roche said. 'That's a 50 percent accuracy rate. So you'll be better off flipping a coin than going by the groundhog's predictions.'"
USA Today reported: "Last year was the third straight year the groundhog has spotted his shadow, something he has done 107 times since his first prediction in 1887. Though he has apparently seen his shadow in 84% of his predictions, Phil has been right only about 39% of the time, according to the Stormfax Weather Almanac."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A Christian pastor says he's banking on a miracle after being accused of pocketing $1.3 million in a cryptocurrency scheme, claiming "the Lord told us to."
The Colorado Division of Securities says Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn marketed their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, claiming "God told him directly that investors would become wealthy if they put money into INDXcoin."
The state says: "The Regalados had no experience in cryptocurrency which was clear when a third-party auditor's report allegedly described their INDXcoin code as unsafe, unsecured, and riddled with serious technical problems. Despite that report, the Regalados allegedly continued to promote the INDXcoin as a low-risk, high-profit investment."
The complaint alleges that in reality, the INDXcoin was illiquid and practically worthless, investors lost millions, and defendants dissipated investor funds to support their lavish lifestyle.
"We allege that Mr. Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his own Christian community and that he peddled outlandish promises of wealth to them when he sold them essentially worthless cryptocurrencies," said Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan.
"New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open-source code. We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical."
"They specifically went out to the Christian community, and there's a lot of references to scripture and faith. He cloaks himself in that to get people to give their money to him," said Chan. "That's really heartbreaking for the people who trusted him."
In a video statement to followers posted last week, Eli Regalado said the allegations they pocketed $1.3 million "are true."
"Out of the $1.3 [million], half a million dollars went to the IRS, and a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do," he said.
According to the complaint, the couple also allegedly spent investors' funds on a Range Rover, luxury handbags, jewelry, an au pair, boat rentals, and snowmobile adventures.
"We took God at His word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit," Regalado said in his video Friday. "What we're believing for still is that God is going to do a miracle. God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector."
NBC News reported: "Regalado was 22 and serving a prison sentence for 'boosting cars' when his faith called him to become a pastor 20 years ago, he said in a YouTube live podcast. He began preaching for the online-only Victorious Grace Church, where he and his wife are listed as the only two employees."
Eli Regalado, his wife, and his three companies face charges of securities fraud, unlicensed broker-dealer activity, selling unregistered securities, and imposition of constructive trust.
Reacting to the video, the Regalados had voices of support, including:
"What a crazy ride Eli. I can't imagine what you guys are going through. Prayers going up."
"Good job coming forward. Can't gossip about rumors when everyone already knows the truth. And, yes, God is not done and He will do a new thing. Hang in there, stay strong, and lean on each other."
But one commenter with a username of "God" indicated: "Yes, I work in mysterious ways. This Regalado schmuck though, is not so mysterious at all. Mystery solved, annnnnd ... guilty."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The list of Republican presidential candidates is being pared as the New Hampshire vote approaches Tuesday.
And social media is skewering one, Nikki Haley, as a flip-flopper.
A new video has her, in her own words, reversing positions on gender ideology, gas taxes, social media, China, the United Nations, and more.
Only last year Time published a criticism of her, over her changes.
That report charged, "Over the past several years—before, during, and after taking a position in [the Trump] administration—she’s flip-flopped on Trump multiple times, oscillating from criticizing the 45th president to praising him."
It cites her criticism of Trump during his 2016 campaign for planning to build a border wall, then charging that Trump was "everything a governor doesn't want in a president."
She "eventually" said she was going to vote for Trump, "even though she was 'not a fan.'"
Then she took a job in his cabinet.
During that time period, when Trump called NATO "obsolete," she said it was "an important alliance for us to have."
She later lavished praise on Trump for keeping communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin open, then blamed him for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
At the time, she said, "I think he’s going to find himself further and further isolated" and said he "lost any sort of political viability he was going to have."
Later, she said, of the GOP, "I don’t want us to go back to the days before Trump."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
One of the organizations that facilitated a major undue election influence operation during the 2020 presidential race has announced plans for another campaign during the 2024 race, but this time instead of using "Zuckbucks" from Mark Zuckerberg, it wants to use federal tax dollars, a new report charges.
The organization is the Center for Tech and Civic Life and it was that group that handed out hundreds of millions of dollars, provided by Zuckerberg, to election officials who often used it to recruit Joe Biden voters.
It was one of the major undue influences on the 2020 race, as such dollars, more than $400 million, never before had been injected into an American election, especially when those funds were outside the normal election spending procedures that are monitored.
It is The Federalist that has posted the report by William Doyle, the research director at The Caesar Rodney Election Research Institute in Irving, Texas, who specializes in economic history and private funding of American elections.
He cites an email "sent to a network of election officials and nonprofit organizations" by the CTCL.
It claims it will facilitate applications by elections officials for money from a massive federal government grant program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"This program could potentially funnel more than $700 million to election offices during the 2024 election under the auspices of CTCL officials and their partners in the nonprofit world of left-wing election activism," the report said.
The federal program targeted is FEMA's 2024 Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program.
While that, the government said, is to "support states, local communities, tribes, and territories as they undertake hazard mitigation projects, reducing the risks they face from disasters and natural hazards," CTCL, in its "creative interpretation," is claiming elections, under Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are a "critical service" deserving of competitive FEMA grant funding, the report said.
The CTCL's coming "webinar" will claim, "As a core element of government function, elections are a critical service and eligible for this government funding," the report said.
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FEMA notes that there's $1 billion available during the current grant cycle. Previously, huge amounts of cash have been handed out through the program for flood mitigation, and such.
The report noted the Caesar Rodney Election Research Institute obtained an email from CTCL's Andra Abbate that said the program is a unique funding opportunity for elections activists.
The report said during the 2020 race, "CTCL money financed the takeover of election offices at the city and county level by partisan activists and made those offices a platform to implement preferred administrative practices, voting methods, ballot harvesting efforts, and data-sharing agreements that were favorable to Democrat candidates.
"Many CTCL-funded election offices then became launching pads for intensive multi-media outreach campaigns and precisely targeted, door-to-door voter turnout and mail-in ballot-chasing efforts in densely populated urban areas packed with potential Democrat voters," the report said.
Since then, multiple states have adopted laws banning the private funding of election management.
But the report charged, "Democrat election activists are nothing if not ingenious, however. By tapping into a huge reservoir of potential federal funding, CTCL, and its partners could skirt the prohibitions against 'private funding' of elections, while gaining de facto control over a much larger funding source than could be provided by individual billionaires such as Zuckerberg, all the while using it to mount the same sort of technical, data-driven, and activist-led manipulation of the election system in favor of Democrats that they mounted in 2020."
However, the report notes that the purpose of election officials is to maintain polls and count votes accurately, not participate in partisan "get-out-the-vote" campaigns on behalf of one political party.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The leftist LGBT agenda, which now includes, according to some, literally dozens of identities and orientations, has exploded during Joe Biden's tenure in the White House, essentially since he has made promoting those alternative lifestyle choices one of his top priorities.
Included in that ideology is the concept of "furries," people who identify as animals.
Fine, says one lawmaker in Oklahoma, but not in public schools.
There, students acting out their fantasies will have their parents called.
Or animal control.
Rep. Justin Humphrey has prefiled House Bill 3084, according to a report.
It states, "An Act relating to schools; prohibiting certain students from participating in school curriculum or activities; requiring the student's parent or guardian to pick the student up from school; providing for removal of the student by animal control services; providing for codification; and providing an effective date.
"BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA: SECTION 1. NEW LAW A new section of law to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 11-301 of Title 70, unless there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows: Students who purport to be an imaginary animal or animal species, or who engage in anthropomorphic behavior commonly referred to as furries at school shall not be allowed to participate in school curriculum or activities. The parent or guardian of a student in violation of this section shall pick the student up from the school, or animal control services shall be contacted to remove the student."
A report at Not the Bee said, "Dressing up like anthropomorphic animal characters has become quite the trend these days, and there are quite a few reports of kids showing up for class looking like a Disney mascot."
It cited a hoax that appeared some time ago, a claim that schools were installing "litter boxes" for students who are "furries."
That's been debunked, the report said, but said, "There's no question that some kids are showing up to school dressed as animals and that it is disruptive."
The report cited the need for more such "common-sense" legislation.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
He's been given one of the biggest stages in America: in college basketball.
And this hoop star, described as having NBA potential, wants the world to know about his faith in Jesus Christ.
It is the Western Journal that has profiled Gabe McGlothan, who plays for the Grand Canyon University in the Western Athletic Conference.
At 6-foot-7, he leads his team in rebounding. And he reads his Bible on the bench before games.
"Gotta bring your sword to battle," he said of his reading, which he pursues both during the season and as his team appeared in the 2023 NCAA tournament.
The Western Journal reported how the 24-year-old graduate student explained his choice during a podcast with Jason Romano of Sports Spectrum, a faith- and sports-focused news outlet.
There, a report noted he was All-WAC second team with his 12.8-point average during the 2022-23 season. The Western Journal reported the Antelopes had won the WAC title and were the 14th seed in the NCAA's West Region, then lost a first-round game to No. 3, Gonzaga.
"In 2023-24, he once again leads his team in rebounding, and in a win over No. 25 San Diego State on Dec. 5, he had 15 points and 13 rebounds in helping the Lopes to their first-ever victory over a ranked opponent," the report noted.
The report said, "Romano noticed that McGlothan had a Bible on the bench before a game. So he asked if the young forward spent those pregame moments merely holding the Bible or actually reading it."
McGlothan said, "Reading it. So I do devotions, of course, daily devotions. But I also do devotions for a game."
He said in the interview he got started with former teammate Jayden Stone, a guard on the 2021-22 Antelopes.
"We’d read a verse together, and then let’s take it out to the game. So we have that constant reminder — adversity strikes, we know exactly where to go," he said.
The Western Journal explained, "Athletes need not enjoy on-court or on-field success to act as witnesses for Christ. When they do achieve competitive goals, however, their public displays of faith can have quite an impact."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Not unlike multiple previous – and failed – social ideologies about a "super race" of citizens on earth, convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein reportedly wanted to set up a baby farm at his New Mexico ranch.
The purpose would have been to allow underage girls to have the children of those elites in society, those with money and influence.
"According to a report published at SenseofTruth, Epstein's "twisted desire" included "impregnating numerous underage girls at his expansive property, aiming to 'seed humanity' with not only his own DNA but also that of his influential associates."
Investigative reporter Paul Joseph Watson explained in the video, "We know that Epstein was obsessed with trying to groom the tech elite, like with his infamous dinners with Bill Gates."
The report said Watson charged, "Epstein’s sprawling ranch in New Mexico, which was pedantically maintained by staff, yet rarely used or visited by Epstein himself, appeared to have one main bizarre function: to serve as a baby-making facility where Epstein would attempt to help foster his dream of ‘seed[ing] the human race with his DNA by impregnating women.'"
The New York Times also reported that Epstein "told scientists and businessmen about his ambitions to use his New Mexico ranch as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm and would give birth to his babies."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A street preacher in the United Kingdom has won a settlement of nearly $19,000 in compensation and costs after being arrested, wrongfully, by police in Scotland.
The Christian Institute reports street preacher Angus Cameron has won £5,500 in compensation and £9,400 in costs in settlement.
On the hook for the damages are police in Scotland, who detained the pastor of Cumnock Baptist Church over a "hate crime" that didn't exist.
Cameron donated all of his compensation to The Christian Institute, which supported him throughout his ordeal, the report noted.
Simon Calvert, the deputy director for public affairs for the institute, explained Cameron was preaching in Glasgow city center when he was approached by a police officer who claimed to have been told that "homophobic language" was being used.
Angus denied that.
Then the officer "announced that he was under arrest for 'breach of the peace with homophobic aggravation.' He was handcuffed – despite being entirely peaceful and compliant," the institute reported.
The report continued, "Angus was searched in the roadway, in full view of passing traffic and pedestrians, before being put in the back of a police van for over an hour. He was finally released to be told the matter would be dealt with 'in due course.' His preaching was not targeting individuals; he did not use offensive language; he was not aggressive; he did not try to offend; he simply quoted the Bible. There was no criminality at all."
Then when prosecutors declined to pursue the case, he was told he would still have a record of a "non-crime hate incident."
"Despite the police knowing full well that the complaint against him did not amount to a criminal offense, this respected community leader was informed his good name was to be associated with ‘hatred’ and potential criminality in police records," Calvert said. "We were pleased to be able to help Angus bring a legal action and we believe it was because of the strength of his legal claim that the police were forced to reach an out-of-court legal settlement and pay damages and legal costs."
As part of the settlement, police also agreed to erase references to the "non-crime" hate incident.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
ISRAEL -- After three months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, the IDF is on the verge of eliminating the terrorist entity. This raises the question of governance in Gaza after the smoke settles.
Despite being classified as a terrorist organization by seven nations including Israel and the United States, Hamas is the elected government in Gaza. Eliminating Hamas, deemed as necessary by Israel, will leave Gaza without a government. Founded in 1988 during the First Intifada as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas set three long-term goals, articulated in its charter: first, the end to the Jewish state, and second, the creation of an Islamic state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The third goal, stated explicitly multiple times in the charter, is the genocidal annihilation of the Jews.
This is expressed succinctly in the charter by the phrase “Hamas rejects any alternative to the complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
Such an entity ruling the region on Israel’s southern border would represent a grave existential threat.
The Biden administration has pressured Israel to allow the Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza as a prelude to a “two-state solution.” Indeed, when Israel evacuated the Jews in 2005, it was done with the intention of having the PA take power. But Hamas won the elections, leading to a bloody civil war in which Hamas eliminated any opposition.
If elections were held today, it is likely that Hamas would be voted back into power. A recent poll carried out by The Palestinian Center for Policy Survey and Research reported that the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis has only increased the popularity of Hamas. Fifty-two percent of Gazans and 85% of West Bank respondents – or 72% of Palestinian respondents overall – voiced satisfaction with the role of Hamas in the war. Only 11% of Palestinians voiced satisfaction with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The PA is no better than Hamas and has not condemned the Oct. 7 attack. The PA has pledged to pay nearly $3 million to the families of the 1,500 Hamas terrorists whose bodies were found inside Israel after they slaughtered Israelis on Oct. 7 as part of the long-standing Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund.
Videos of the attacks showed terrorists wearing the yellow headbands of the PA’s Fatah taking part in the massacre.
A third option has been suggested: allowing the Gazans to leave. On Jan. 2, Minister of Intelligence Gila Gamliel outlined the main points of her plan for the voluntary resettlement of residents of the Gaza Strip, which she is presenting to the Israeli government.
"The mobilization of the international community is required to create a pool of countries that will take in refugees while receiving an aid package for them,” Gamliel said. “With proper diplomatic work, the international system can be harnessed for this. The implementation of an outline of voluntary humanitarian resettlement will allow Gaza refugees who wish to have the opportunity to rebuild their lives, without the tyranny and oppression of Hamas-ISIS, to be able to do so.”
The transfer of Jews from contested areas has always been a leftwing agenda as part of the disastrous “land for peace” Oslo Process. Any calls for the transfer of Arab populations to facilitate peace between Jews and Arabs have always been treated as a radical agenda and its proponents have been demonized and even targeted by the Israeli security forces as “extremists.”
So, it is shocking that Likud MKs have presented this as a possible solution for Gaza.
Danny Danon, a Likud politician and Israel’s former representative to the United Nations, and Ram Ben-Barak from the leftwing Yesh Atid party published an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal, calling for “countries around the world to accept limited numbers of Gazan families who have expressed a desire to relocate.”
We simply need a handful of the world’s nations to share the responsibility of hosting Gazan residents. Even if countries took in as few as 10,000 people each, it would help alleviate the crisis,” they proposed.
While fleeing a combat zone is a basic and universal human right, many foreign leaders have come out strongly against this. The U.S. State Department responded by condemning this suggestion. “This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately.”
“We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land,” Miller said. “That is the future we seek, in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, the surrounding region, and the world.”
It is noteworthy that a study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center published in September – before the war began – reported on a mass emigration of young men from Gaza.
“Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, between about 250,000 and 350,000 young adults have left and gone abroad,” the study claimed. “Their initial destination is Turkey, from where their intention is to continue to other countries, primarily European countries and Canada.” The study noted that while Hamas obscures the data, it is clear that this exodus is increasing as requests for visas pour in.
War has only increased the desire of Gazans to emigrate. An article in the Guardian reported that Palestinians are paying bribes to brokers of up to $10,000 to help them exit via Egypt, which has worked to prevent Gazans from leaving.
A report in the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom cited a memo submitted to Israel's political leadership by legal experts claiming Israel has no legal obligation to allow displaced Gaza residents to return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip. The memo, signed by Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Bitton from Sapir College, Prof. Eugene Kontorovich from George Mason University, and Prof. Avi Bell from the law schools of Bar Ilan University and the University of San Diego, analyzed the state of war from a legal perspective.
The legal experts explored whether there is an obligation to allow residents to return northwards if it would thwart a key military objective in war. In this case, allowing the Gazan civilians to return would deter finding and returning Israeli hostages. The experts based their opinion on reports that the Israeli captives were transferred to the southern Gaza Strip under the cover of humanitarian corridors created by Israel while being forced to disguise themselves as locals. Allowing Gazans to return to northern Gaza would further exacerbate the IDF’s search for hostages.
The three jurists emphasized that returning the population to the north is out of the question so long as the fighting continues. It was also emphasized that Israelis were not able to return to their communities adjacent to the Gaza border because of ongoing rocket attacks from Hamas.
"The IDF has no legal obligation to enable the return of the population to the northern Gaza Strip, and such a duty is unlikely to emerge in the coming months,” the legal experts concluded. “The IDF has a vital military need justifying non-return of the population as long as fighting continues and as long as the goal of freeing the captives remains."
A call for the Gazans to be permitted to flee a war zone should not be confused with a call to resettle the region with Jews. Eugene Kontorovich, the head of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “Gaza Can’t Be Peaceful Without Jews.” In it, Kontorovich stated that among the demands being made by the Biden administration is an implicit prohibition against Jews being allowed to live in Gaza.
“The existence of safe Jewish communities in Gaza could eventually make Israel confident enough to withdraw,” Konbtorovich wrote. “By contrast, as we’ve seen in recent months, if Jews aren’t safe in Gaza, they won’t be safe in Israel either.”
Rebuilding a Jew-free Gaza is an integral part of the Oslo Process and the two-state solution being advocated by the Biden administration. All of the Jews living in Gaza were forcibly removed in 2005, and no Jew has set foot in the area since the evacuation. The areas of Judea and Samaria under the control of the Palestinian Authority are likewise forbidden to Jews who may not even enter without being attacked. Similarly, approximately 900,000 Jews migrated, fled or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries in the 20th century.
Kontorovich noted that a significant Jewish community existed in Gaza as far back as the 1500s. In the late 19th century, while the region was under Ottoman rule, a new wave of Jews moved in and established a flourishing trade community. Most left after the Arab riots in 1929. When Israel recaptured Gaza from Egypt in 1967, thousands of Jews moved there, establishing the communities known as Gush Katif.
All of the Jews were forcibly removed from Gush Katif on Aug. 15, 2005, the day after the Ninth of Av, commemorating the destruction of both Jewish Temples in Jerusalem.
Approximately 9,000 Jews, mostly from the Religious Zionist movement, were torn from homes they had built. Thriving agri-businesses were abandoned and all of the 21 communities were leveled.
The action left a deep scar on Israeli society. Carried out by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a heavy-handed political maneuver that required the former general to create a new party while still in office, massive protests around the country were suppressed, some violently, and many protesters jailed. Calls for a referendum vote, certainly justified for such a move, were ignored.
Indeed, the action was explicitly racist, turning Gaza into Judenrein (“cleansed of Jews”).
Sharon said his plan was designed to improve Israel's security and international status, claiming that in the absence of negotiations with the Palestinians, the demographic threat of an Arab majority required a unilateral move toward peace.
“The parameters of a unilateral solution are: To maximize the number of Jews, to minimize the number of Palestinians, not to withdraw to the 1967 border and not to divide Jerusalem,” Ehud Olmert, Sharon's deputy leader, said in a 2003 interview.
Coming in place of negotiations, the withdrawal from Gush Katif was intended by Sharon to obviate uprooting Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. When proposing the measure, Sharon also suggested annexing Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, and the major settlements like Ma'ale Adumim and Ariel.
The Palestinians have failed to recreate the paradise on the Mediterranean that was Gush Katif. Many of the Gazans had been employed in the greenhouses, at least half of which were left intact. Palestinian looters destroyed them as the Jews left, effectively wiping out an industry that earned $450,000 a day.
Gaza has received billions of dollars in foreign aid, but Hamas has usurped most of it, using it for terrorism against Israel rather than benefiting Gazans.