Soldiers toyed with refusing orders, demonstrations and civil disobedience were rampant, and the televised images of Jews forcibly carried from their homes by black-uniformed border police was too much for many viewers. The settlers' homes were bulldozed, their deceased relatives were exhumed, and, following their departure, their synagogues were torched, their horticulture ravaged, and their gardens became launching sites for rockets. The botched resettlement of the families by the government provoked further pity from the nation. Naftali points across the road to caravans in which, despite government promises six years ago of proper housing, they are still living.

And yet that disengagement from Gaza removed merely 8,600 settlers. Today almost 350,000 Jews live in the West Bank, many of them in big towns, and some 200,000 more in East Jerusalem. Evacuating so many people seems unfeasible at the best of times, let alone after such a precedent.

Geopolitics has a name for this demographic reality: facts on the ground. President George W. Bush recognised them in his 2004 letter to Sharon, but, in pressuring Netanyahu for further withdrawals, President Obama appears to be reneging on those pledges, which seems good reason not to trust his own pledges regarding the Palestinian Arab right of return. They don't like him much here.

 Having navigated what feels like countless roundabouts, we arrive at Ariel's university. Officially called Ariel University Centre of Samaria, it is a year from the end of a five-year graduation process from college to university. Academically, the chief spokesperson explains, the institution is fit for promotion, but politically, it is more precarious, and a friendly government must be in place for the best outcome.

He begins our tour at the main building, a fine belvedere overlooking Samaria, Nablus observable in the distance by the biblical Eival Mountain. We are standing next to the office of the university's president, who comes to greet us. He was meeting with a former finance minister who now serves as a leading executive of the institution, and who tells me about the institution's plans. The centre serves some 12,000 students, only 15 per cent of whom come from Samaria, and including a thousand Israeli Arabs and increasing numbers of Palestinian Arabs. Many of the students are Russian, including MBA and communications graduates. The university hopes to enlarge the student body to 20,000 within a decade.