So now we know for certain. Ariel Sharon's plan to "disengage" from the Gaza Strip is a gambit to freeze the Middle East peace process indefinitely, hang on to nearly all the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, deny the Palestinians a state, and set aside forever the future of 4m Palestinian refugees, the status of occupied Arab east Jerusalem and where Israel's final borders are to be drawn.

While little of this will come as a surprise to readers of these columns, we now have it on the authority of Dov Weisglass, Mr Sharon's closest aide, who secured the support of the Bush White House for this manifestly one-sided outcome. He told Israel's Haaretz newspaper that the Gaza plan "supplies the formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians".