“… at no point did Gaza become its own country,” writes Beinart, “Had Gaza become its own country, it would have gained control over its borders.”

Who argues differently? Beinart doesn’t say. In my own search I couldn’t locate any reputable “Jewish leader” or pundit—not even those sinister AIPAC types—who’d ever asserted that Gaza was its own country or that Israel had unilaterally withdrawn and abdicated control over Gaza borders or its own security. Nearly always, Jewish leaders argue that Palestinians were handed some level of autonomy over their own affairs after 2005—which is factual.

It’s true that “Jewish leaders” often argue this autonomy would have been the first step towards some kind of statehood. And that contention seems to irk Beinart most of all. So he bores into the soul of Ariel Sharon and others to prove that Israel’s unilateral pullback was meant to block a Palestinian state. And considering his definition of what that state would look like, that might be true. The reasons for withdrawal were complex, but the action was widely praised at the time, including by people like Kuwait’s foreign minister, Sabah Salem Sabah, who said the move should be viewed as a “first step” towards Palestinian statehood.