Thursday, April 28, 2011
If #Hamas and #Fatah Reunite, Does Everything Else Fall Apart?
Jackson Diehl writes about the uncertainty of the Hamas-Fatah deal
But one thing is sure: If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas moves forward with the reconciliation with the Islamic Hamas movement, it will mean he has written off the Obama administration and the peace process it has tried to broker, once and for all.
Actually, the one sure thing is that the left will now come out with all manner of explanations as to why this is the last, best chance for peace (read: unilateral Israeli concessions).
More importantly, if this reunification is for real, the end of peace talks may be least of the problems:
According to reports Wednesday, it probably will mean the end of the West Bank administration headed by Salaam Fayyad, a technocrat highly respected by both Americans andt Israelis. If so, Congress will almost certainly suspend $400 million in annual U.S. aid. It could mean the reorganization of Fatah’s U.S.-trained security forces, which have worked with Israel to keep the peace in the West Bank for the last several years, and their eventual integration with the cadres of the Iranian-backed Hamas.
So bottom line, if this "reconciliation" lasts, it will be one more source of concern for Israel in a Middle East overrun with change. Leave it to the Palestinian Arabs to go in the opposite directjon of the rest of the regjon and solidify 2 corrupt regimes.
1 comment:
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Hamas is the stronger party... the PA has all but conceded defeat.
ReplyDeleteA Palestinian government will simply be a fig leaf for Hamas even if it has Fatah ministers.
There is going to be no question as to who is calling the shots - and the cumulative impact of yesterday's development will be to push the Palestinian Arabs in a more radical direction.