Last Chance For Abbas
Charles Krauthammer looks the recent takeover of Gaza by Hamas and the de facto splitting of the Palestinian territories. He tentatively supports giving Mahmoud Abbas one last chance to get it right in the West Bank - but only one last chance.
With Hamas now clearly in charge, Israel should declare that it will tolerate no more rocket fire — that the next Qassam will be answered with a cutoff of gasoline shipments. This should bring road traffic in Gaza to a halt within days and make it increasingly difficult to ferry around missiles and launchers.
If that fails to concentrate the mind, the next step should be to cut off electricity. When the world wails, Israel should ask, what other country on Earth is expected to supply the very means for a declared enemy to attack it?
Regarding the West Bank, policy should be equally clear. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas represents moderation and should be helped as he tries to demonstrate both authority and success in running his part of Palestine.
But let's remember who Abbas is. He appears well intentioned, but he is afflicted with near-disastrous weaknesses. He controls little. His troops in Gaza simply collapsed against the greatly outnumbered forces of Hamas. His authority in the West Bank is far from universal. He does not even control the various factions within Fatah.
But the greater liability is his character. He is weak and indecisive. When he was Yasser Arafat's deputy, Abbas was known to respond to being slapped down by his boss by simply disappearing for weeks in a sulk. During the battle for Gaza, he did not order his Fatah forces to return fire against the Hamas insurrection until the fight was essentially over. Remember, too, that after Arafat's death Abbas ran the Palestinian Authority without a Hamas presence for more than a year. Can you name a single thing he achieved in that time?
Without Western aid, Abbas will lose the West Bank, with it, he might save that much. But Fatah is not much better in the great scheme of things than Hamas. Let's not forget were dealing with two terrorist organizations. But Fatah has at least been convinced to admit that Israel has a right to exist. For that, we probably need to give Abbas one last chance.
War, World news | Gaius Friday, 22 June , 2007
By daveinboca, Friday, 22 June , 2007 @ 11:49 am
Krauthammer forgot the Taliban in Afghanistan as Iran’s newest proxy—the enemy of Iran’s enemy, in this case NATO, is its friend. The army of quislings inside the Beltway quivers at the thought of action, much like Abbas the Democrats are afraid of FOXNews hosting their candidate debates, let alone actually resisting Islamic organized terrorism.
Read “Prisoners” Jeffrey Goldberg’s excellent book on the complexities of the Palestinian quandry.