Toll in Palestinian Civil War Mounts

[RebLem]

Gazans seek refuge from fierce Palestinian clashes

Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:22 AM ET

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian civilians sought refuge across Gaza on Sunday from a third day of fierce clashes which have killed 22 people and brought the coastal strip closer to civil war than any time since Hamas came to power last year.

The sounds of exploding grenades and automatic weapons fire echoed in Gaza City as gunbattles raged, witnesses said, and a bomb blast damaged the Gaza home of a bodyguard of senior Fatah figure Mohammed Dahlan.

The clashes are the fiercest among Palestinians since the Islamist Hamas group won elections last January, unseating President Mahmoud Abbas's once dominant Fatah.

The violence has derailed troubled coalition talks between the two factions, and brought much of Gaza to a standstill.

Residents said some families were evacuating homes near the worst of the fighting. Others were keeping children inside and staying away from windows, fearing sniper fire.

Schools across the narrow, densely populated territory, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, were closed on Sunday and only a few shops were open for people buying emergency supplies.

"We appeal to all our people, you have to preserve national unity. The language of dialogue and reason must prevail," Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said at the start of an emergency cabinet meeting.

"You have to put weapons away from streets and you have to end all forms of tensions," he added.

Haniyeh urged Abbas to pull Fatah gunmen off the streets. But Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said the Hamas-led executive forces were "the major element in tensions and in the continuation of sabotage and killing."

HAMAS SEES "COUP"

At least 52 Palestinians have been killed in the bloodshed that erupted after Abbas, a moderate, called last month for early presidential and parliamentary elections after inconclusive talks with Hamas on a unity government.

Hamas parliamentarians accused Abbas on Sunday of incitement against their movement, saying his call for early elections "amount to a coup against the results of democracy."

"National dialogue cannot continue with leaders of the coup or those who support them or justify their positions," they said in a statement.

Hamas has struggled to govern since taking office in March under the weight of U.S.-backed sanctions imposed over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals with the Jewish state.

There were no casualties reported on Sunday in either the bomb blast or the fighting. Hospital officials said a Hamas gunman died of wounds sustained on Saturday when explosives he was handling detonated.

In the latest skirmishes, Hamas gunmen and members of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security Service clashed outside its main headquarters in Gaza, witnesses said.

Snipers took up positions on rooftops as Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire below. There were also gunbattles outside the headquarters of the Hamas-led police, witnesses said.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, a Hamas city councilor was abducted as he left a bank, witnesses said. Gunfire broke out but no injuries were reported. The Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for his capture.

Eight Fatah and nine Hamas supporters were still held in Gaza.

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[Febnyc]

Terrific. These are the people clamoring for a state of their own. Well, they have/had the opportunity to make a meaningful start in Gaza and look at the result. Instead of attempting to improve the lives of the citizens and begin to establish a society of laws and order and perhaps one which could join the civilized world - instead of doing that, the "government" still is sending out suicide maniacs and fomenting a civil war which is accomplishing the precise opposite. Another addition to the lunatic societies of the Middle East. There's no hope for these people.

[pizza]

The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition

End the delusion
EFRAIM INBAR , THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 27, 2007

Israel is missing a great opportunity to change the international diplomatic discourse on the Palestinian issue. The lasting anarchy within the Palestinian Authority and the imminent civil war among the various militias presents Israel with the opportunity to undermine the misguided conventional wisdom of the past two decades: that a two-state solution is the only hope for peace and stability in the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Many have suggested that the Palestinian national movement will be able to agree on a compromise with the Zionist movement and subsequently establish and maintain a state which could live peacefully next to Israel. Unfortunately, both assumptions have proven to be false.

Actually, the establishment of an embryonic Palestinian state, the PA in 1993, has led to more bloodshed and greater instability. The discredited Oslo process has allowed the PLO, which has been, inter alia, a terrorist organization, to get a territorial foothold in the Holy Land.

Terrorist organizations are much more dangerous and lethal when they have a territorial base. Indeed the number of Israeli (and Palestinian) casualties has increased tenfold since 1993. Moreover, the emergence of the PA led to the militarization of the fragmented Palestinian society, which is beleaguered by the internecine struggles of a myriad of militias.

Arafat's unwillingness and/or incapability to acquire a monopoly over the use of force and the escalation of the violent conflict with Israel since 2000 further eroded the governing capabilities of the PA, leading to a collapse of law and order and pervasive corruption.

The ascent to power of the radical group Hamas in 2006 did not improve governance in the PA despite the hopes that the Islamists could be honest and effective administrators. Moreover, the Hamas government's refusal to recognize Israel further eroded the belief that the Palestinians are able to reach a historic compromise with the Jewish national movement. Such a notion had already been undermined by Arafat's refusal to sign a deal with Israel at Camp David in July 2000.

SKEPTICISM concerning the ability of the Palestinians to maintain a functioning state has become widespread in the world. Israel should capitalize on that awareness, primarily in friendly countries, to help them reach the conclusion that the Palestinian experiment started at Oslo has basically failed and there is no effective Palestinian option.

Moreover, little can be done by outsiders to fix the Palestinian mess. Generally, the ability of foreigners to influence the domestic sociopolitical dynamics of the Middle Eastern societies is limited. Western political pressure and/or financial aid can hardly change entrenched ways of conducting political affairs. Any Israeli attempt to intervene in the internal struggle within Palestinian society is doomed to failure. For example, Israel's transfer of $100 million to Mahmoud Abbas will only taint the Palestinian leader as a collaborator with Israel and further weaken his untenable position.

Foreign support to the Palestinians and/or the preservation of the UNRWA relief system only sustains the terrible status quo, allowing for increased militarization of Palestinian society and prolonging its ability to refrain from facing the grim reality its leaders have led it into.
All current plans fail to address the main problem - Palestinian chaos. Palestinians have an urgent need for effective government, not "a political horizon," which is a euphemism for quickly establishing a Palestinian state. This is an impossible endeavor because the Palestinians have already amply demonstrated their ineptitude at state-building. It will take them decades to mature politically. Nurturing the national hopes of the dysfunctional Palestinian national movement will bring only further suffering to the Palestinians and their neighbors.

The only chance to alleviate the Palestinians' situation is foreign rule, despite the fact that it sounds politically incorrect. Nevertheless, their best friends, the Israeli Left, advocate an international mandate, realizing that the Palestinians are not politically mature for self-rule. Yet why an international mandate enforced by an international force should be more successful than the US in Iraq is unclear. Recalling the colonial record of the UK and France in the Middle East, the inescapable reality is that only Arabs can rule over Arabs by Arab methods.

Therefore, the quest for peace and stability requires stopping the Palestinian experiment as soon as possible. Since Israel has no appetite for ruling unruly Palestinians, it is for Jordan and Egypt, both Arab, to contain the Palestinian national movement and rule over the Palestinians. This was actually done with relative success by both states before 1967.

With PA fortunes at a low point, Israel should use its diplomatic resources to further weaken and delegitimize the hostile entity, rather than paying lip service to the two-state paradigm - a losing proposition. Jerusalem should encourage greater involvement by Egypt and Jordan in Palestinian affairs. These states have signed peace treaties with Jerusalem and behave more responsibly than the PA leadership. If they refuse, the prevailing chaos will inflict pain primarily on the Palestinians. Under the current circumstances such a consequence may be useful in influencing the Palestinian learning curve.
Alas, there are people that learn only the hard way.

The writer is professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University and director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

http://jpost.com

[pizza]

Terrific. These are the people clamoring for a state of their own. Well, they have/had the opportunity to make a meaningful start in Gaza and look at the result. Instead of attempting to improve the lives of the citizens and begin to establish a society of laws and order and perhaps one which could join the civilized world - instead of doing that, the "government" still is sending out suicide maniacs and fomenting a civil war which is accomplishing the precise opposite. Another addition to the lunatic societies of the Middle East. There's no hope for these people.

They are not clamoring for a state of their own. They're clamoring for the destruction of Israel. Hamas makes no pretense otherwise. The two state solution is strictly a Western idea. Some Palestinians, including Abbas' Fatah Movement pay lip service to it, but they know they haven't the capability to govern themselves as a state -- no industry; no infrastructure; no GNP worth talking about; completely reliant on outside financial help and on Israel for employment.

[Corlyss_D]

What's really scary is that John Batchelor and his security contacts on his show knew that Hamas was going to take over when the Israelis pulled out of Gaza. They knew that Hamas was going to win the election. Yet governments and media alike were shocked when Hamas was elected. It's one thing to run a soup kitchen in between murderous forays into Israeli controlled territory. It's quite another to pick up the trash and pave the streets.

[Werner]

That Jerusalem Post article presents an interesting "new" angle, especially considering the past role played by Jordan and Egypt. How realistic do you think such an idea is, Pizza?

[pizza]

That Jerusalem Post article presents an interesting "new" angle, especially considering the past role played by Jordan and Egypt. How realistic do you think such an idea is, Pizza?

Not likely to happen soon. The West must first disabuse itself of the two-state solution and stop funding the PA. It must also try to convince Egypt and Jordan that there is something worthwhile in it for them if such a solution were to occur. With the ongoing chaos in Gaza there isn't much incentive for either country to accept such a burden. I don't see any solution within the near future unless and until the Palestinians can control their internal violence.