evolution

In other news, dog bites man:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Hamas-led government sent its private militia back into the streets of Gaza on Saturday, a day after withdrawing the force to help calm an increasingly bloody standoff with forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas officials said the move wasn’t meant as a provocation. But Abbas’
Fatah movement said the deployment raised the chances of new fighting. Fatah officials also said the move threatened negotiations on the president’s ultimatum to the militants to accept a plan that would implicitly recognize
Israel.

The 3,000-strong Hamas militia has been at the center of the Palestinian infighting, and Hamas’ decision to withdraw the black-clad force on Friday was widely seen as a conciliatory gesture.

That’s what I need — my own political party with a private militia. (Of course, if you’re a Kos or DU commenter, you already think most Red Staters™ are members of local gun-fellating RACIST militia groups armed with assault rifles and oversized King James Bibles; alas, it is not so.)

Anyway, we have drifted off-topic: Anyone who thinks Hamas will ever renounce violence and recognize Israel is a fool. Have a look at the text of the referendum Abbas threatened to call if Hamas didn’t come back to the negotiating table. In it, there is no mention of renouncing violence except that among Palestinian groups, and the Israelis and their actions are referred to as “criminal”, “unjust” and “racist”. The text also calls for a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders — an implict recognization of Israel’s right to exist — and calls for the right of return. Israel has already said it would not accept the right of return. If the Palestinian “government” could get everything they wanted, it would be considered a sweeping victory. That wasn’t good enough for Hamas.

As I said, it’s a politically-savvy move for Abbas, because he has just clearly demonstrated that he is the only person on Earth that can get Israelis and Palestinians to talk. He needs to clean up his own house; his party (Arafat’s Fatah faction) was voted out largely based on disgust with it over corruption and ineptitude. Hamas provided things Fatah couldn’t, so Hamas won elections — plain and simple. If Abbas can do those things, he has a chance; if not, you can expect this conflict to continue for a generation or two more.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 27th, 2006 at 14:31 and is filed under terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.