Terrorists Build Lousy Governments

Israeli intelligence broke up a plan to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. They warned him that the military wing of Hamas was planning to kill him at his office in Gaza. It is not clear exactly who authorized the attempt.

The murder plan is the clearest sign yet of the tensions inside the Palestinian Authority between Hamas, which swept to power after elections in January, and Abbas’s Fatah movement.

Hamas leaders, who refuse to recognise the state of Israel, suspect Abbas of obstructing their attempts to govern, which have been hampered by a financial boycott from donor nations. “Hamas considers Abbas to be a barrier to its complete control over Palestine and decided to kill him,” said a Palestinian source who was an adviser to Arafat and is a close acquaintance of Abbas.

It is understood that the attack would also have targeted Mohammed Dahlan, Abbas’s strongman in Gaza.

The sources were unable to say who in Hamas’s secretive leadership had given the order to kill Abbas. But an indication of its hostility towards Abbas came last week.

The Palestinians keep moving closer to open civil war, having failed to grasp numerous opportunities to live in peace with Israel. With their financial crisis growing every day, it remains to be seen how long Hamas can actually try to hold on to political power. There were some apologists who said Hamas would moderate once they actually had to start governing. I don't think that worked out very well, judging from this.

Update: My thanks to A Blog For All, Flopping Aces and Sister Toldjah for linking here.

Other Links to this Post

1. A Blog For All — May 7, 2006 @ 9:50 am

2. Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » Israel Warn Abbas — May 7, 2006 @ 11:33 am

3. Sister Toldjah — May 7, 2006 @ 1:04 pm