But Palestinians say that even if all that happened, it would not mean that the occupation was over. Palestinians remain suspicious. "Sharon is just deceiving the world," says Raji Sourani, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, in Gaza City. "He's not putting an end to the occupation. He's just deploying his troops in a different way. "The Israelis will continue to control the land, sea and air. There will be no port, and no airport. The Israelis will have full control of the movement of the people here, and their connections with the outside world." He says he sees Mr. Sharon's plan as a means of derailing the Palestinian dream of establishing a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza.

ARAB ORGANIZATIONS: ISRAEL IS STILL THE OCCUPYING MILITARY POWER

The Palestinian points of view of the legal issues pertaining to the proposed Israeli withdrawal are shared by the United States S-based organization, Human Rights Watch. The organization claims that Israel intends to maintain military control over Gaza and the Palestinian people, which would mean that Israel shall remain the occupying power in the eyes of the law. Arabs and Palestinians are worried, for they strongly believe that Israel will economically control Gaza. In addition to their serious concerns and continuous suspicions, Palestinians believe that people from Gaza who need to work in Israel will be cut off. Their biggest fear come from the possibility that Israel will close the roads to Jerusalem, this depriving the Palestinian workers from making a living. Mobs in the markets of Gaza were shouting :"We will die from hunger. We won't be able to do anything. We'll be in Allah's hands." Many Palestinians used to work in Israel as workers, clerks and bus drivers. Yousef Summan, a Palestinian bus driver said: " I used to earn good money as a bus driver in Israel. But now, everything came to an end. " The reason for possible closing the roads to Jerusalem is justified by the Israeli government. Israeli fears that suicide bombers will slip into Israel among the workers. It has drastically reduced the number of commuters from Gaza.

ARAB WORLD AND ARAB MEDIA COMMENTS

ARABS' JUSTIFICATION OF ACTS OF VIOLENCE

What usually, Arab heads of states, politicians, scholars, moderate leaders and reporters tell the American public, IS NOT what they tell their own people and state in the Arab media. Most recently, the Arab media including AL AKHBAAR and Al AHRAM, two leading newspapers in Cairo presented a very "special" Arab point of view and scenario of the Sinai bombings. It is intriguing and amusing to learn how editorials in leading Arab publications interpret and explain terrorism and bombings caused by their compatriots. Publicly, and in English, the editorials appear to be siding with the United States, and encouraging perpetual peace with Israel. However, if we read the texts in Arabic, the whole story and whole intentions of the Arabs change drastically. According to AL AHRAM, the Sinai bombings presented Sharon with an opportunity to further marginalize the Palestinian cause. The Egyptian media reports that Sharon will exploit the bombings with relish. Furthermore, Arab editorials argue that Israel's Gaza rampage was not just a response to the firing of Qassam missiles. It does not mean that Arabs have to subscribe to claims that Israel needs no excuse for its actions.

Arab Media Commentaries: " You cannot impose a unilateral solution to a conflict without recourse to extraordinary levels of violence."

A verbatim translation of selected articles and comments in the Arab media goes like this: " The latest Israeli incursion into Gaza was not unrelated to the rudimentary weapon -- missile is perhaps too grand a term for these devices -- Gazans have developed to fight the situation into which they have been thrust, a situation, unprecedented in modern history, that essentially locks a million and a half people into a prison with two gates. Israeli violence in Gaza, in Jenin and Nablus, is structurally integral to the problems of disengagement -- you cannot impose a unilateral solution to a conflict without recourse to extraordinary levels of violence." And this is alarming, for, despite all the peace efforts deployed by Israel to bring peace to the region, Arab media, constantly undermines those efforts and Israel's intentions and the possibility of peace negotiations with Arab countries, particularly Syria. The October's general message conveyed by the Arab Media in Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Lebanon as published on the very front page of their leading publications goes like this: "Unlike the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon where a sovereign state claimed control and responsibility on the evacuated areas, the issue in Gaza is not just one of unilateral withdrawal, but of redeployment on conditions Israel believes will consolidate its control over areas of the West Bank. It hopes to control Gaza with less friction from the outside and annex parts of the West Bank while at the same time improving its international standing and alleviating international pressures to engage in a settlement process Israel neither wants nor can engage in given its current leadership and the state of public opinion."

ISRAEL'S SECURITY WALL

Several commentaries and articles appeared in AL AHRAM stated that it is the Qassam missiles, though, that have thrown into relief Israel's threadbare justifications for the construction of the security wall and unilateral disengagement. The wall cannot hold even against such a primitive weapon. Israel is perfectly aware that after the redeployment of the Israeli troops the occupants of Gaza will never accept their fate as prisoners, will not accept an occupation at arm's length from the other side of a wall, certainly not in the absence of even the promise of a just settlement and a resolution to the question of Palestinian national sovereignty. "Conducting a survey among so-called moderate Arab scholars and political leaders, the common Arab belief is that Israel is not taken in by its hollow demagoguery about the culture of "terrorism". It is perfectly aware of the causes and knows exactly what to expect. It will make every attempt to minimize the possibility of Palestinian reaction, by using all its military capacities to produce a climate of fear.

THE TWO FACES OF ARAB MEDIA AND POLITICAL LEADERS

While, publicly, and in speeches in English given by President Mubarak and members of his cabinet urging the United States to enhance the peace process in the Middle East and welcoming Israeli's "sincere" initiatives, contradictory statements in Arabic are regularly printed in the Arab press. For instance, one of the commentaries of AL AHRAM stated: "The brutal assault against Gaza is, then, an attempt to provide an answer to a knot of intertwined problems. There are, for example, domestic political issues, raised by those who question the feasibility of suppressing Palestinian resistance by brute force. The Israeli government's answer is to move from one kind of violence to another, from one phase of escalation to the next, hence the military incursions into poor residential areas and targeted assassinations in Damascus. There are also strategic questions over how to inhibit the development of the Palestinians' capacity to resist following unilateral withdrawal. " Another chocking statement was recently published in the AL AHRAM newspaper: "Israeli efforts in this regard have been greatly facilitated by the Sinai bombings, the first operation that has allowed a link to be made between international terrorist networks and the Palestinians, and the first time international terrorist operations have been mounted around the borders of Palestine.