The Hamas-Fatah War - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
The question on the Palestinian street is no longer when civil war will break out, but when will it end.
Armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah supporters have been taking place every day since the deployment of the new Hamas security force. Over the past two weeks, the homes and cars of at least seven security officers loyal to Abbas have been targeted by Hamas militiamen. Two Hamas militiamen have also been killed in separate attacks by Fatah.
The unprecedented violence has been accompanied by a war of words being fought in the mosques and on television and radio stations, as well as in leaflets. (Jerusalem Post)
See also: Jordanian Embassy Staffer Killed in Gaza Crossfire - Ali Waked (Ynet News)
The other question is how soon the will world make Israel responsible to take actions to calm the situation and what concessions she will be told to make.
Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Fatah and Civil War and Palestinians.
There may be another question; Ellie Wiesel once said that Israel only stands united against a common enemy. As their enemy quickly deteriorates, one has to wonder if the threat from outside of Israel will be enough to keep the country together, or if without the imminent threat from Palestine the differences between the various Israeli communities become more pronounced, and eventually pull the country into its own civil war.
ReplyDeleteBut this is a different enemy. All those years when Israel was the good guy, the bad guys were the Arab world attacking. Circumstances then led the West to sympathize with Israel. Now Israel is viewed as the bad guy--and the Palestinians are the good guys, draining Israel even more than during the events leading to Oslo since they now deal with world condemnation.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the Palestinian Arabs are an enemy that unites Israel.
I think those days are over. Even the world's response to a Moslem country threatening Israel--Iran--is reduced to a knee-jerk reaction that cannot be sustained over time. Last year Iran was condemned for comments it made against Israel; now Iran has been elected to a vice-chair position on the U.N. Disarmament Commission.
It's time for Israel to learn to find an internal reason to be united.
1) I'm not sure the "Palestinians" have to be unified to pose a threat to Israel. In fact, I think increasing competition between different factions would just make things worse, because besides killing members of the other faction, the other best way to compete is to kill more Jews than the other faction. But even if I'm wrong, there are plenty of enemies to make up for the loss - Al Qaeda, Hizbullah, Iran....
ReplyDelete2) It's a strange thing that both Israeli and "Palestinian" society are having civil wars now on some level, despite their different relative situations. The "Palestinian" side faces no threat, and is even winning, so I guess they can afford that luxury. The Israeli side is losing, so you'd think that Elie Wiesel's theory would kick in and they would be more united than ever. But, as you said Daled, many Israeli Jews don't even know who the enemy is anymore, and even those who do know often prefer to ignore reality and pretend that a few disengagements will calm everything down. That means that another Jew who realizes what's happening and doesn't want to keep surrendering to the Arabs becomes an obstacle instead of a brother. You'd think that with the stakes so high, this group's desire for unity might have fallen away by now in favor of more active resistance, but it hasn't happened (yet?).