While we’re on the subject of The Entity, I should note what strikes me as the first good news to come out of that neck of the woods in as long as I can remember: Kadima and Labor trounced Likud, Netanyahu and the rest of the Greater Israel gang in the elections.

I hate talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I hate thinking about it. I decided long ago that the less I think about it, the healthier I will be.

But I grudgingly recognize it’s important. I’ll even recognize that it’s important to understand Israeli politics. So from time to time I talk to an American Zionist, neocon reporter I know here and try to pump him for insights into Israeli politics. He portrayed the election results as the final political death of the notion of a Greater Israel. Israeli voters, he said, emphatically sent the message that they want the settlements dismantled. Yes, the disengagement would be unilateral, but the “peace process” wasn’t working, and Israeli voters said the current situation could not continue while politicians (and now Hamas politicians) tried or didn’t try to get it back on track. He further said that he expects Netanyahu’s paper tiger to be crumpled now. Previously, he represented the right-wing of the ruling Likud party, and it wasn’t clear (in Washington, anyway) if Israeli voters shared his views. Now his hand has been tipped, and he’s got nothing.

You know what? He’s right. True, the disengagement plan cannot be a final solution. True, it’s not a state. True, life will still be miserable for the Palestinians. But it’s a step in the right direction. Negotiate the next steps. How can any sane person see the dismantling of settlements in the West Bank as a bad thing? Let’s be realistic: a fair, negotiated peace deal wasn’t on the horizon. Perhaps it’s still not. But it may be closer now.