Day 603 - Prof. Elie Podeh on the IDF disengaged from Gaza, 20 years ago

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

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🗓️ 31 May 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Hebrew University Prof. Elie Podeh.

Podeh, the Bamberger and Fuld professor in the History of the Muslim Peoples, recently published a research article, "Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza: A Multilateral Move Under Unilateral Façade."

In the article, we learn that while the Gaza Disengagement was a unilateral decision, it was carried out in partnership with the United States, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Among other revelations in the paper, we hear about the committees formed among the partners and their work on arrangements for border control, economic transition, and security cooperation. All elements were negotiated behind the scenes, especially under the guidance of American envoys and Egyptian mediators.

Podeh weighs in on prime minister Ariel Sharon's decision not to allow the PA to take credit for any part of the diplomatic cooperation and the question of whether delegitimizing the PA's authority in Gaza may have contributed to the Hamas takeover in 2007.

We speak about -- today, as the IDF is poised to retake the Gaza Strip, what the reasons were for the Disengagement 20 years ago -- and, in Podeh's opinion, why the Strip shouldn't be resettled by Israel.

And so this week, we ask Prof. Elie Podeh, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

IMAGE: Young settler prays during the disengagement in Neve Dekalim on August 18, 2005. (Nati Shohat/ Flash90)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's What Matters Now.
0:05.2	I'm your host deputy editor Amanda Borscheldan, here with Hebrew University Professor Eli Pode.
0:11.9	Hi, Ellie.
0:12.7	Thank you so much for joining me today.
0:14.2	Hello.
0:14.6	Good afternoon.
0:15.3	Such a pleasure to have you.
0:16.6	And as we're approaching 20 years to the unilateral pullout from Gaza, the disengagement, as it's called, in August, and of course, at the same time, the IDF is launching a wide-scale operation in Gaza right now to seize and hold the territory, according to IDF chief of staff, A.L. Zamir. I'm here with Elipode to discuss
0:39.5	some of his most recent research looking into the disengagement in how it wasn't necessarily
0:45.5	a unilateral pullout after all. So all of this and more after the break.
0:57.5	We're being used.
0:59.3	Jews are being used on Israel, on anti-Semitism, for other purposes.
1:04.4	And that puts us in a dilemma.
1:06.2	If it was Jews-quant Jews, it's one thing to stand up.
1:10.2	But now, when Jews are being used on immigration issues, on woke issues, makes it a lot more difficult when to say something or not say something.
1:19.3	On the most recent episode of identity crisis, Uhuda Kurtzer speaks with Abe Foxman, long-time anti-defamation league leader and Holocaust survivor, about the relationship
1:28.9	between major Jewish organizations and those in power, and to understand when and how to speak up for the Jewish people.
1:36.5	Join us as we take on the issues facing contemporary Jewish life on identity crisis from the Shalom Hartman Institute, wherever you get your podcasts.
1:53.4	I'm Amanda Borchelle Dan here with Hebrew University Professor Eli Pode.
1:58.0	Eli, thanks again for joining me.
2:00.0	And we're here to discuss your new article.
2:02.7	Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza, a multilateral move under unilateral facade. I just
	...

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