Give peace a chance?

It's amazing that this sort of dreck made its way into the NY Times today.

Look, it's pretty clear to me what's going on with the Gaza withdrawal. I've been pounding that home on a few occasions of late. People can disagree with the view that this is all a ploy to "freeze the peace process," prevent negotiations, and provide cover for West Bank settlement growth and the continued expanse of the illegal wall, but critics should at least try to stay within some reasonable approximation of reality.

Besides relaying the usual racist canard that Arabs are untrustworthy, this Times op-ed by Zev Chafets argues that the pullout is part of some masterful plan that Bush and Sharon hatched to help realize the establishment of a Palestinian state and the implementation of the much-touted Roadmap.

That the withdrawal was widely reported to have been drawn up by Sharon on his own (subsequently sold to Bush), and blatantly flies in the face of the provisions within the Roadmap, apparently doesn't matter. Like a multitude of other commentators, Chafets is now pushing a narrative that is entirely a post-hoc rationalization, glossing up "disengagement" as a bold, essentially benevolent gesture that a good amount of the media is either too confused or clueless to see through.