key events that led up Operation Cast Lead: 1. The assassination in November 2004 of Yaser Arafat (ordered in 2003 by the Israeli cabinet); 2. The removal, under the orders of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005, of all Jewish settlements in Gaza, a Jewish population of over 7,000 was evacuated; 3. The building of the infamous Apartheid Wall was decided upon at the beginning of the Sharon government; 4. Hamas election victory in January 2006 (without Arafat, the Israeli military-intelligence architects knew that Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would loose the elections. With Hamas in charge of the Palestinian authority, using the pretext that Hamas is a terrorist organization, Israel would carry out the process of “cantonization” as formulated under the Dagan plan. Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas would remain formally in charge of the West Bank. The duly elected Hamas government would be confined to the Gaza strip)
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