Divide and Rule
The Israeli right must be loving what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians fighting amongst themselves. This, as well as being desperately sad, was absolutely predictable. Hamas and Fatah have irreconcilable differences.
Fatah recognises the right of Israel to exist - this gives it international recognition and a certain amount of respect. Hamas does not and will not accept that Israel exists; this has resulted in the exteremely damaging international economic boycott of the Palestinian territories ever since Hamas won the Palestinian elections.
Fatah is corrupt and useless at governing, Hamas is an Islamic fundementalist group that will never negotiate with Israel.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has called for elections to defuse the situation.
Whether this will improve things (and there are no guarantees of elections, because Abbas does not have the constitutional power to call an election - here he has only recommended one) remains to be seen. Obviously the election of Hamas was a disaster, but Fatah had proved itself incompetent and unfit to govern. Perhaps this period in opposition will convince Fatah to get its act together? Let us hope so, because there can be no progress with Israel when the Palestinian Authority is run by a political group that does not recognise Israel's right to exist.
It continually astonishes me that, 60 years on from its founding, the debate continues amongst many people about whether Israel still has a 'right to exist'. I find that quite obscene. Of course the ultra-Orthodox Messianism of the Jewish settlers in the West bank is equally disgusting, as is the policy of collective punishment the Israelis have pursued towards Gaza.
It sems to me also that, at its core, this is a dispute about land. Of course land disputes are always eventually ironed out through compromise and negotiation; but this land is diffenrent. It is 'Holy' land and therefore, because one group of peoples magical being says so, another group of people cannot be permitted to live on it. Quite astonishing, as well as dispicable.
-posted by Adam
