Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, writes in the Washington Post today about the situation in Gaza. He is wondering if maybe the fix was in for this "Palestinian two-state solution" all along. Did Mahmoud Abbas purposely throw the game just to let Hamas fail on its own in Gaza?
One might expect that this democratically elected leader would denounce Hamas's coup and call for international intervention to restore his control. But there he sat in Ramallah, prevaricating as the only liberated part of his putative state fell into the hands of his Palestinian archenemies. Finally yesterday, he dismissed the Hamas-led government, but only after its takeover of Gaza was complete.
Critics will say that this is typical of Abbas, a weak leader who would rather appease his challengers than confront them. But perhaps Abbas understands the emerging realities better than they do.
Over the past year when Hamas would stage attacks in Gaza, Fatah forces would retaliate in the West Bank, where they were stronger. When fighting began this time, Fatah did little in the West Bank to counter Hamas's onslaught. Abbas's passivity further confirms that the fix was in. Abbas and Fatah have in effect conceded Gaza to Hamas while they hold on to the West Bank. Hamastan and Fatahstine: a "two-state solution" — just not the one that George W. Bush had in mind.
Of course, all Palestinian leaders will continue to declare the indivisibility of the Palestinian homeland. But in private, Abbas and other Fatah leaders may take solace from the dilemma Hamas will now have to confront.
The failed state of Gaza that Hamas controls is wedged between Egypt and Israel. Its water, electricity and basic goods are imported from the Jewish state, whose destruction Hamas has declared as its fundamental objective. One more Qassam rocket fired from Gaza into an Israeli village and Israel could threaten to seal the border if Hamas did not stop its attacks. Hamas would then have to reach a meaningful cease-fire with Israel or seek Egypt's help meeting the basic needs of the 1.5 million Gazans. Hosni Mubarak's regime turned a blind eye to the importation of weapons and money that helped ensure Hamas's takeover. But would Egypt allow on its border a failed terrorist state run by an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood with links to Iran and Hezbollah? Or will it insist on the maintenance of certain standards of order in return for its cooperation?
Was this the goal all along? Let Hamas try to run things and watch the collapse? If Israel cuts off the power, will Egypt step up? Obviously, Hamas got its weapons by smuggling them through Egypt. So now Egypt has a bunch of terrorist thugs for neighbors. The AP today is plastering a story on the wires that assures everyone that Hamas plans to "pardon" Fatah leaders. But the story only mentions leaders, not troops. And there are multiple reports of savage looting of captured homes of Fatah members. Gaza is going to be a very unpleasant place – much worse than it has been – with Hamas in absolute control.
Maybe that is exactly what Abbas wanted to prove.
Yes, the AP is trying to turn these toxic waste dumpers into environmentalists. Anyone who watched the BBC last night saw Hamas gunmen emptying their AK-47s and other automatic weapons into the air without a thought in their monkey brains about where the bullets would come down. The primitive savagery of the Arabs can’t think beyond their testoserone to the fact that 2 million lost souls live in the garbage dump that is Gaza, and some will get hit by said bullets. Happens all the time, but the BBC and Guardian never report where the bullets come down.
And a brain-dead bimbo Arab reporter in Beirut called the assassination of a Sunni judge “daring†as though killing someone and ten bystanders in an amusement park was an act of bravery. This bi-yotch with a mike then said that the Shi’ites and their allies were “chipping away†at the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanese parliament, as if seven murders in the last two years was some sort of parliamentary tactic.
I lived in the Middle East for almost a decade, speak and read Arabic, and there is little if anything more to hope from this savage medieval relic of a “civilization†that purports to be founded on a “religion of peace.†My lyin’ eyes just can’t see the peace that blowing up Sunni and Shi’ite places of worship in progressive acts of retaliation fits into the term “civilization.â€
And any female Arab bimbo who describes a car-bomb murder in an amusement park as “daring†should be fired immediately. And “chipping away†is not a term literate people use for political murders.
You miss that bit at the end where he finds fault with Condi and the Administration for going down this path.
What Indyck leaves out is that his boss, President clinton, foisted the PA onto a pedestal and tried to make the PA and Fatah fashionable. They remain to this day a terrorist organization. Ditto for Hamas.
Whether it is deliberate strategy by Abbas, it will provide a laboratory for the world to witness whether Muslim extremists can do anything constructive, or just blow up other folks. Considering the mess the Taliban made of Afghanistan, The residents of Gaza are in for a rough ride.