Is anyone surprised that Hamas and Fatah are killing each other? Not me. And that tenuous cease-fire they've got going on is not going to last. Hamas and Fatah are fighting for control of the Palestinian Authority. It is a natural outgrowth of Hamas winning electorally.
Because, again, if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Hamas has expressed itself politically through violence for years. Now it has the chance to govern and it can't do it. Not without killing people. Its only political expression is violence and wild-eyed rhetoric. To be more balanced, Hamas also has many charities and feeds the poor, etc. But it is how you communicate and negotiate with your enemies that makes you a leader.
The worst possible denouement would be Israel's involvement in this fight. Let them kill each other or learn how to talk themselves. It is a struggle they are going to have to resolve.
3 comments:
They'd like Israel to get in on it. That way they'd have someone to shoot besides each other.
Hamas will try to get Israel into it. That way Israel can blow up some more stuff, and Hamas can blame Fatah!
Maybe we should just nuke the entire region. All of it. If we share the plunder with Russia and China who will be left to complain?
What Hamas and Fatah both want is an Israeli ground operation in Gaza.
I think that the Israeli gov't actually made the right move this time, by only authorizing a resumption of trageted strikes in response to the increased terrorist rockets... Israel had no choice but to respond (what self-respecting country can sit back and let terrorists attack it?), but by targeting the "brains" they'll damage the long-term effectiveness of Hamas. And because there will be a minimal Israeli presense on the ground, Hamas and Fatah will have no one to shoot at but each other.
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