I visited Israel in late August 2005. It was a hot summer, and the political turmoil of the day made it hotter still. The Jewish state was in the throes of one of its more tortured sagas: the self-imposed and forced removal of its citizens from the Gaza Strip.
The country was bitterly divided, not for the first or last time. The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had lost its majority and the confidence of his Likud Party’s rank-and-file. Forming a new party, Kadima, he joined with dovish opposition leader Shimon Peres and secured the required support for his “disengagement plan.” Among the plan’s opponents was then-Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who resigned from the government after his demand for a national referendum went unmet.
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