And that's the sound of the other shoe dropping.

A little while back, annoying leg humper and right-wing chew toy Pete Rempel spake thusly:

Apparently you don't know what a trick question is. Is pulling out of Gaza the right thing to do?

Pete was clearly annoyed that I wasn't prepared to heap effusive praise on Israel for yanking the settlements out of the Gaza Strip and, for the life of him, he just couldn't understand my reluctance.

That's because, unlike Pete, I am a patient man, and I was waiting for the inevitable. And here it is:

As the last of the 8,500 Jewish settlers who once inhabited the Gaza Strip boarded buses to return to Israel yesterday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signalled again that he plans to expand, not dismantle, key settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Just before Israeli soldiers and police cleared out the last of 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, Mr. Sharon declared that no one should expect to see a repeat in the West Bank.

Mr. Sharon -- who has lost much of his right-wing support base over his Gaza "disengagement" plan -- said Israel would expand, not dismantle, its settlements in the West Bank.

"I will build," he said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. "This is something you will see in a short time, that there will be no second disengagement."

There you go, Pete. So much for good intentions, no? God, I love being right.