It's a Start
Nice to learn that tens of thousands of supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah have rallied in the Gaza Strip, in response to the latest factional belligerencies between Fatah and Hamas militias. It mightn't be so bad if the militias themselves fought between each other as they're most certainly doing - without impacting on the safety and lives of other Palestinians, but that's not quite possible. Alas.The violent power struggle between (secular) Fatah and (fundamentalist Islamic) Hamas places the entire region in danger. Danger of outright civil war between the two factions. And danger also to Israel since the impact of wider-ranging violence beween Fatah and Hamas might very well result in a situation where there will be no viable entity left to speak on behalf of the Palestinians with whom Israel can come to mutually agreeable terms for peace.
While it's true that Hamas was elected a year ago by a significant margin of Palestinian voters, little did they realize what this democratic process in self-determination would bring them. The end result thus far, of this collective agreement has been an enfeeblement of the Palestinian Authority, a distancing of Western countries, a smothering of poverty for Palestinians themselves, let alone the ongoing spectre of increasing insecurity in the region.
There is little evidence of law and order, since the two militias behave like vigilantes. Their behaviour has a disruptive influence on the youth and the marginally disaffected of Gaza, along with unaligned terror groups who celebrate the lack of civil restraints enabling their jubilation in pursuing their ongoing agenda to destabilize and terrorize Israelis with cross-border Kasam assaults.
Little wonder Palestinians voted for Hamas. In its more-than-ample years of governance the Palestinian Authority under Fatah has done little-to-nothing to institute civil infrastructure with which to maintain the population. Law and order have been absent. Foreign-derived funding from the European Union, the U.S., Canada and elsewhere meant to stabilize and fund needed infrastructure mysteriously went missing under Yasser Arrafat and his corrupt colleagues.
In desperation Palestinians voted for Hamas, which had already proven itself a provider of the wherewithal for community health centres, educational opportunities, and civil infrastructure. Trouble is Hamas came heavily weighted with extreme positions on Islamic vengeance, foremost among its positions being its promise to become the vehicle for the obliteration of the State of Israel - reclaiming the territory in its entirety for Palestinians. And the greater glory of Islam.
Hamas has turned out to be a pig in a poke. They refuse to relent and re-align their position to better reflect reality, that the hudna they propose in their stand-off with the West is insufficient; peace and the timely acknowledgement of the right of the State of Israel to exist beside a fully-independent Palestinian State in harmony with its neighbour is the only acceptable "compromise".
Anything less is doomed to failure.
Labels: Middle East
posted by Pieface @ Monday, January 08, 2007
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