people in gaza are virtually begging for israel to move back in to restore security. i can't possibly see how this will get uglier. but it will in the next few days. israel will have to move in. and frankly it would save lives. haaretz times bbc
So true, since I'm sure that the Israelis are loving the fact that Palestinians are killing each other. Long live the divide and conquer strategy.
The fact that the 'Old Guard' Fatah is in full power-grab mode and refusing to live with the results of the last national elections. Of course, Fatah is not alone in this since they're being 'encouraged' by some outside parties to make things a little harder for the Hamas-led government (actively armed and financed to do so). In return, the Hamas leadership made it clear that they won't relinquish their responsibility to govern and will escalate the conflict if they must to force Fatah into compliance. Basically, it's a power struggle... Can't we just have the Egyptians annex Gaza and give Jordan the West Bank?
why would you think that would improve the palestinians lot? economist discusses this possibility. hamastan
Man, they are not just killing each other...These guys are inventing ways to kill each other...wow!...
I don't think it would benefit the Palestinians OR the Egyptians/Jordanians, but at least you get some form of functioning governance. Yeah, I know. I was being facetious...
I don't remember if I've gone ballistic on Arafat here or not, but he's to blame for a lot of this. When he was the (virtually) undisputed leader of the Palestinians, he had a chance to make some tough decisions that could have paved the way for a bright future. Instead he was too concerned about simply maintaining his dominant hold on power and ensuring his corrupt cronies ran things. He could have been a pivotal figure in history like Anwar Sadat (yes, I know it isn't exactly the same but you get the idea) who took a risk that redefined a nation's alignment. The "old guard" Fatah deserves everything that they get from Hamas. At this point, I'll be radical and say the only hope for lasting peace is for Hamas to win and then moderate later. If the Palestians split themselves between the West Bank (Fatah) and Gaza (Hamas) and do not have a unified voice, the Palestinian people's hopes could be set back 10-20 years. The Israelis will ignore them and the other Arabs will despise them (the Palestinians) even more than now.
Well Hamas won the democratic elections fair and square. Israel, the US and many in the West did not like the results. They encouraged Fatah to resist the will of the voters. Israel cut off the taxes which they collected for the Palestinian Authority. Not that much "Authority" if an external power actually collects your taxes.! It was bound to lead to fighting eventually. The conservatives in control of Israel can not be all that unhappy about Palestinians killing each other. It will lead to more extremism and eventually terrorism towards Israelis, which provides the excuse for more land grabs. It is another sort of proxy war between Hamas, backed by Iran, Syria and Fatah, who lost the elections backed by Israel, the US and others. Of course, in years past Israel fought Fatah constantly. As long as rejectionists are in control of Israel they will fight whatever Palestinains government does not give into their land grab. It sort of reminds me of the US arming first the Shiite death squads to fight the Sunni resistance and now arming the Sunnies of Iraq to fight Al Qaeda. Even further back-- when the West supplied arms to both Iran and Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War seemingly happy to have them both keep fighting and dying without any real winner.
I know... I sold my AK semi-auto variant Arsenal SR56, just to have only AR types in my collection and I wish I hadn't...I have read a lot of U.S. military personnel prefer the AK's for close fighting. nevermind, look what you made me do!
Update: Palestinian Leader dismisses government and declares State of Emergency, Hamas now declares the Gaza strip under Islamic rule. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/14/gaza/index.html
So sad, gonna have to let them kill each other until both sides get tired of the fighting. Keep building that wall Israel ! DD
