More Palestine – Moon of Alabama

December 16, 2006

More Palestine

In Murder Context I tried to give a bit of an overview over the situation in Palestine.

There is a standoff between President Abbas on the Fatah side, and Prime Minister Haniyeh, his cabinet and his majority in Parliament on the Hamas side. Abbas is supported by Israel, the U.S. and the E.U. while Hamas gets some support from Syria, Iran and others.

As soon as Hamas had formed its government, all flow of money into the Palestinian territories was stopped. Israel bombed the Gaza strip and closed off nearly all traffic with it. Gaza and its 1.5 million people are nearly completly isolated.

Though Hamas had a clear majority, pressure was put on it to form a "unity government" where Abbas again would have the upper hand. Hamas declined to give away what its voters had voted for.

The U.S. and Israel have allowed weapons and additional personal from outside the West Bank and Gaza to flow in to beef up Abbas’ Presidential Guard, his private army in this conflict.

When Haniyeh returned from a recent visit to Iran and other countries with some cash to help the Palestinians, he was held up by Israeli forces from crossing the Egyptian boarder to Gaza, even though that border is not supposed to be under Israeli control. Only after some hours of stand off, Haniyeh left the money with friends and was allowed to cross the border.

Immediately after Haniyeh crossed the border some fightings started between Hamas and Fatah forces. One of his body guards was killed and one of his sons was wounded. Haniyeh accused Abbas of an assessination attempt on him. Protests by Hamas members followed in Gaza and in the West Bank. In Ramallah members of Abbas’ Presidential Guard shot into a Hamas demonstration and injuried some 32 people.

Today President Abbas "ordered" early presidential and parliamentary elections, without having a basis to do so in the Palestinian basic law.

It is not clear what will happen now. Most likely there will be more fruitless negotiations and more clashes. Meanwhile U.S. Secretary of State Rice is seeking additional money to "support the security reform [of Abbas’s forces]", i.e. to build up one side of an imminent civil war. Meanwhile the people in Gaza are hungry.

The NYT has a quote from one Diana Buttu, who was a spokesperson for Arafat, that seems to capture the situation pretty well:

Mr. Abbas “sees the problem from the lens of international pressure, but that’s not how the Palestinian street will perceive it,” Ms. Buttu said. Mr. Abbas wants to end the international boycott through a unity government or a technocratic government, or failing that, if necessary, getting rid of Hamas entirely. But, she said, “the Palestinians want to get rid of the boycott and think that Hamas never had a chance to rule and that Abu Mazen could have worked with Hamas to lift the boycott.”

A strategy for Hamas could be to further expose Abbas as what he has become, a tool of Israel and the U.S. against the democratic will of the Palestinian people. Then they could allow new elections which might very well end with a President Haniyeh and another Hamas government.

But after that?

Posted by b on December 16, 2006 at 18:44 UTC | Permalink

Comments

After posting this I saw that Bea has some very interesting comments and links on this issue in another thread.

Posted by: b | Dec 16 2006 19:03 utc | 1

Abbas increasingly looks like a man who will get shot, like Michael Collins, Sadat, and many others before. Too bad for him and for Palestinians, but I have the feeling the people will mostly turn against him – if Hamas’ influence will increase is another matter.
He’s clearly acting more and more like an Israeli agent and not like a Palestinian leader. I just can’t see how he becamse so blind and oblivious to what he’s been chosen to do.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Dec 16 2006 23:17 utc | 2

Clueless Joe–
If he does get shot, it looks more and more like he will have earned his death.
It is clear the Israelis are desperate, but throwing in with them is stupid, there is just no upside to collaborating with them now.

Posted by: Gaianne | Dec 16 2006 23:48 utc | 3

He’s clearly acting more and more like an Israeli agent and not like a Palestinian leader.
palestinians need food and we give him weapons. surely we expect something in return for our investment.

Posted by: annie | Dec 17 2006 1:11 utc | 4

b:
It is the US the EU and Israel, the whole of “western civilization” against the Palestinians.
Although the EU usually just holds the coats, the US holds the Palestinians’ arms, and Israel delivers the punches above and below the belt, this time the EU is landing a few itself. Too much fun to be left out of.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 17 2006 2:31 utc | 5

I have thought for years that Mohammed Dahlan was the Israeli-US anointed one, sort of their Negroponte, heading up the security services. This move of providing more arms for Fatah security will strengthen his hand even more. If Abbas were the agent, they would have negotiated with him before Hamas came to power. I think Abbas is aware his days are numbered and he is trying to survive.

Posted by: ww | Dec 17 2006 6:39 utc | 6

For all interested in Israel/Palestine, there is a very important and prescient piece in today’s Haaretz by Meron Benvenisti, former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem.
Threats of the Future Vision
Anyone know Nancy Pelosi? How about forwarding her the link? Here’s what he has to say about the situation is Israel — not “Palestine” but Israel — today:

Institutionalized ethnic separatism among the Arab minority is a direct result of a mistaken policy; it is not the Arabs who have created the separatism but rather the Jews. Their oppression of the Arabs and their discrimination against them are, in every area, based on clearly ethnic criteria, and the crystallization of an alienated Arab minority is an inevitable result.

In Israel itself, everyone knows this and it is taken for granted. Only in the US is it completely, absurdly taboo to examine the reality openly and honestly.
And this is Benvenisti’s conclusion:

When it becomes clear that a Palestinian state will not arise, the documents of the Palestinian public in Israel will come to serve as the political program of all the Palestinians, in Israel and in the territories alike. This will not be the first time that the “Arabs of 1967” will learn from their brothers, “the Arabs of 1948.”

Posted by: Bea | Dec 17 2006 13:26 utc | 7

bea:
Pelosi, of course, is a made woman in the AIPAC mob. She is caporegime of the House. I do not say that it is impossible that she will change her stripes, she is after all a politician and for sale to the highest bidder, but I don’t see any change in her “allegiances” on the horizon.
Jimmy Carter though might be more fertile ground. At least this document (have you found “The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel” over the wire?) may make plain to him that there is another track other than the two state track possible in Palestine/Israel. He is so single mindedly pursuing the two state solution that he is tirelessly pointing out that his use of “apartheid” applies only to the occupied territories. The Palestinians themselves obviously disagree.
I was always sceptical of calls for a single state. I imagined that the Israelis would be the dominators and the Palestinians the dominated. That it was a sham of the zionists.
But I’m not a Palestinian and have no interest in making the Palestinians’ choices for them. If they want to pursue a single state solution I support them.
If they want to pursue both a two state solution and political parity for Palestinians with Israel I support them in that as well.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 18 2006 2:30 utc | 8

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