How Not to Get It

This would make me think they'd been taking lessons from the Bush administration, if it weren't so characteristic of them, already. Indeed, so much so that the Iraq War looks like it models itself on an Israeli policy. Anyway, looks like the Gaza rockets have finally crossed a line. Or something.

Israeli cabinet ministers on Wednesday voted unanimously to declare the Gaza Strip an “enemy entity” in order to shut off fuel and power to the 1.4m Palestinians in the impoverished enclave if rocket attacks continue.

Since June the territory where 40 per cent of Palestinians live has been ruled exclusively by Hamas and its borders have been open only for humanitarian aid.

So we thought it would be a good idea to make sure the humanitarian workers had more to do, which is sure to stop those rockets, since we're seeing that choking harder has slowed them down so much. Oh, wait,

Timed with the arrival in Israel of Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, the move by Ehud Olmert’s administration shows exasperation with continued Palestinian militant rocket fire against the Negev.

Yep, clamping down is clearly working for Israel in the Occupied Territories, just like it always has. Not.

Three dozen young soldiers were wounded last week when rockets struck their base, sparking a public outcry for retaliatory action.

Oh, no! Not soldiers! Only terrorists would fire at soldiers!

Gradual sanctions, imposed by Israel in stages if the rockets do not stop, would allow in only enough fuel to power electrical generators at Gaza hospitals. The borders would be opened only for essential food and medical supplies. Water supplies would continue flowing at present levels, however.

Lawyers also advised the cabinet that any disruption in electricity should be restricted, to avoid violating international law by inflicting collective punishment on the civilian population. More than half the Gazan population is under 15 years old.

Ahhhh, I knew I saw the hand of Alberto Gonzales; at least he's found new work! If less than half the Gazan population were under 15, it would be acceptable to starve them. As it is, it is only possible legally to make them really, really hungry. Even if they did vote for terrorists.

Despite Israeli air strikes and Israeli Defence Forces forays to root out the rocket launchers, which have killed a dozen people in seven years and terrified thousands of citizens in Sderot, in northern Israel, homemade rockets rain down almost daily on Israeli soil.

Almost daily attacks that kill an average of two people a year? Hasn't anyone in Hamas figured out that those are pretty inefficient numbers? Maybe the strategy is to keep the pressure on without, in fact, killing lots of people, but I don't know that you can target those rockets accurately enough to reliably aim not to kill or hurt people.

Tzahi Hanegbi, defence committee chairman, told Israel’s Army Radio there was no need to “pamper” Gazans with fuel and electricity, and that a new incursion into the strip was inevitable.

Yes, fuel and electricity are examples of those modern American luxuries, like private jets. I mean, it's not like they won't have water.

What? You got a problem?

tags technorati : Israel, Palestine, Terrorism, Hamas, Gaza, Politics

Hamas Secures Release of Abducted Journalist

Reporter Alan Johnston is back in Britain.

Armed gunmen from the shadowy Army of Islam group snatched him on March 12 as he returned home to his flat in Gaza, where he had been reporting for the BBC for three years. He was released following pressure on his captors by Hamas, a group boycotted by the EU and the US because of its terror links and refusal to recognise Israel.

Once again, Hamas has shown that they can get things done, the kinds of things Fatah has never been able to do. And that they're willing to get those things done. It looks very much like they will soon arrange the release of Gilad Schalit with a prisoner-release deal.

Why has no one in government yet learned that these are in many ways the most straightforward and most sophisticated terrorists on the planet. Even while we can disagree with certain tactics (and with certain aspects of their agenda), they are deeply pragmatic and unhindered by corruption or renegade factions. I think, but don't know, that this is in no small part due to a certain genuine populism, despite (or perhaps in some ways because of) the Islamist authoritarianism.

Maybe if Kirkpatrick can distinguish between authoritarian and totalitarian, Rice can find some similar wordgames to give us a chance to find a way to work with Hamas. Or maybe not.

tags technorati : Alan Johnston Gilad Schalit Hamas abducted journalist

Ambivalent Much? Confused Much?

According to a new poll, Israelis support a two-state pact by 70% to 26.5%. That's pretty clear, but of course there are several problems.

First, that's a large minority in opposition, and odds are they're pretty dedicated. I reckon they're the same group who've held such efforts back for a long time. Remember Rabin?

Second, the same poll showed that 63% oppose giving up the Golan in exchange for full peace with Syria. Not only is that its own problem, but where exactly is that Palestinian state going to go?

Third, there is still deep ambivalence about supporting Abbas even in the face of Hamas. Fewer than 55% could even support releasing frozen funds, while 39% oppose it. Hello? And we wonder why Palestinians, Arabs, and other Muslims are radicalized (i.e., toward Hamas) on this issue?

tags technorati : Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Abbas

Hamas Frees Abducted Journalist?

No, not yet. But they've captured an Army of Islam leader in Gaza. What will Israel and the US do when Hamas proves themselves capable of winning against an al-Qaida-related group in Palestine? I hope they're thinking about it, because it seems imminent, but they've not shown themselves especially capable of thinking ahead on this stuff.

tags technorati : Hamas, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Army of Islam

The Rush to Support Abu Mazen: Too Little, Too Late

So after all this time spent trying to divide and conquer, the Israelis may actually have to pick a side. They're finally releasing funds to the PA in an effort to bolster Abbas.

In one of a range of measures it is weighing to support Abbas, Israeli Cabinet members agreed in principle to start giving him $550 million in frozen Palestinian tax money. Israel has withheld the funds - mostly customs duties that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians - since January 2006, when Hamas swept Palestinian parliamentary elections. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group.

The freeze left previous Palestinian governments unable to pay full salaries to government employees, who support one-third of the Palestinian people. Olmert told his Cabinet that the unlocking of the tax revenues was meant to support the new Palestinian government. Abbas expelled Hamas from the government after the group took Gaza.

That's genius. Expel the people in charge from the government. It's like Charles I ordering Cromwell not to cut his head off. Oh, and never mind that Hamas actually won an election. And then won a little war, a war essentially encouraged by Israel, at least until the bad guys won.

tags technorati : Israel Palestine Abbas Hamas PA

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.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Hamas, Fatah, Abbas, Arafat, Palestine, Uri Avnery

A Coup by an Elected Government

Say what you want about Fisk, he is spot on:

How troublesome the Muslims of the Middle East are. First, we demand that the Palestinians embrace democracy and then they elect the wrong party - Hamas - and then Hamas wins a mini-civil war and presides over the Gaza Strip. And we Westerners still want to negotiate with the discredited President, Mahmoud Abbas. Today "Palestine" - and let's keep those quotation marks in place - has two prime ministers. Welcome to the Middle East.

Who can we negotiate with? To whom do we talk? Well of course, we should have talked to Hamas months ago. But we didn't like the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. They were supposed to have voted for Fatah and its corrupt leadership. But they voted for Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel or abide by the totally discredited Oslo agreement.

No one asked - on our side - which particular Israel Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds - and goes on building - vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22 per cent of "Palestine" still left to negotiate over ? [ . . . ]

It's easy, of course, to call down a curse on both their houses. But that's what we say about the whole Middle East. If only Bashar al-Assad wasn't President of Syria (heaven knows what the alternative would be) or if the cracked President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad wasn't in control of Iran (even if he doesn't actually know one end of a nuclear missile from the other). [ . . . ]

So what will we do? Support the reoccupation of Gaza perhaps? Certainly we will not criticise Israel. And we shall go on giving our affection to the kings and princes and unlovely presidents of the Middle East until the whole place blows up in our faces and then we shall say - as we are already saying of the Iraqis - that they don't deserve our sacrifice and our love.

How do we deal with a coup d'état by an elected government?

Technorati Tags: Palestine, Fisk, Israel, Middle East, Hamas