Monday, June 18, 2007

Israel, Hamas, and the Art of Digging a Deeper Hole

As Uri Avnery points out, Israel -- in semi-partnership with the US -- made this mess (so-called "Hamastan"), by opposing first Arafat and then his successor at every turn, while at the same time, most recently, arming Fatah in the territories. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing? Is there a plan for what happens when Abbas (and Fatah) fails and Hamas is finally really in charge? One suspects not, but I guess we're about to find out.

Our government has worked for years to destroy Fatah, in order to avoid the need to negotiate an agreement that would inevitably lead to the withdrawal from the occupied territories and the settlements there. Now, when it seems that this aim has been achieved, they have no idea what to do about the Hamas victory. [ . . . ]

Successive Israeli governments have destroyed Fatah systematically, cut off the feet of Abbas and prepared the way for Hamas. They can't pretend to be surprised.



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