29 January 2007

Hamas-Fatah Violence

For once, I agree with King Abdullah of Saudi
Arabia that the infighting between the two main
Palestinian factions Fatah, in power for so long,
and Hamas, elected by a landslide a year ago,
which has now cost around 25 lives over the
last few days, is, in the words of Abdullah,
disgraceful, a tragedy and a grave crime:
"What is happening on the pure land of Palestine
is a disgrace, which has tarnished the history of
the honourable national struggle of the people
of Palestine".
He has invited Palestinian leaders to a meeting
in Mecca, and they have agreed, probably to be
held in the Haram as-Sharif itself - and what
better place?

The infighting is also, of course, totally
counterproductive, serving only the external
interests of "divide and rule", and Israel and
America, both assisting Abbas' Fatah movement
with money and weapons, must be rubbing their
hands with evil glee right now.

Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya of Hamas, during
a call for calm, criticised "troublemakers who are
trying to veer away from the path of our people
by receiving dirty American funding and arms" -
a clear and sharp reference to president Mahmoud
Abbas and Fatah which the U.S. recently promised
86m dollars to help with weapons and training.

The underlying reasons for the problems?
Three:
-Outside interference, see above.
America+Israel+the-West-in-general will do
ANYthing to try to prevent political Islam from
functioning and getting another platform,
however small.
-Fatah has never really accepted the results of the
election one year ago, casting serious doubts on
their democratic credentials - this is of course no
reason for Israel and America to stop dealing with
Abbas/Fatah, neither being seriously interested in
democracy themselves!
-The crippling sanctions, and political isolation,
put on Hamas by "the civilised world".
Palestinians being human, this has undoubtedly
contributed very seriously to the general feeling
of hunger and desperation especially in Gaza and,
as I keep saying, the world should be thoroughly
ashamed of itself - but apparently isn't.

Any solution?
Yes of course, there are always solutions!
That so-called "civilised world" must accept
Hamas for exactly what it is and deal with it as
it deals with any other legitimate government.
The EU and Russia should bravely take the lead
here and break ranks, go on, I dare you to do it!

Restoring the aid and political contacts would
make an enormous difference and could possibly
even redeem parts of the Western world in the
eyes of Hamas, who must surely by now have
given up entirely on the West.

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