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Israel completes pullout faster than expected

Although it has been a turbulent and emotional week for many Israelis, it is also a moment many are noting with a sense of history. More than 38 years after seizing the Gaza Strip from Egyptian control and the West Bank from the Jordanians, this marks the first time that Israel has ever dismantled a fully rooted settlement on land that Palestinians claim for a future state. Recognizing Sharon`s domestic difficulties stemming from the disengagement plan, intended as a unilateral move to diffuse a few of the sore points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. President Bush offered praise for the prime minister`s initiative.

Israel`s withdrawal of about 9,000 residents from 25 Jewish settlements ended Tuesday. The evacuation of Jewish settlers, as well as about 6,000 protesters, was finished far ahead of schedule and without the level of violent resistance that military officials had predicted here and in Sa-Nur, the last two enclaves cleared since forcible removal of settlers began last week.

Most difficult, according to the army`s own predictions, would be the approximately 1,000 radical right-wing protesters here who were expected to resist evacuation forcefully, potentially with firearms or explosives. The worst-case scenarios, however, never materialized. Although some of the activists resisted physically - 19 members of security forces and five settlers were injured as a result - the settlers` tactics were primarily limited to kicking or punching, or throwing things.