June 27, 2006
ROUNDABOUT ROUTE:
Israeli threat unites Hamas, Fatah: with Israeli troops on Gaza border, militant Hamas sided with Fatah on two-state plan (Joshua Mitnick, 6/28/06, The Christian Science Monitor)
Under mounting international pressure to free a kidnapped Israeli soldier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh closed ranks Tuesday by concluding a power-sharing agreement aimed at ending months of violent Hamas-Fatah fighting and laying down principles for talks with Israel. [...]The Abbas-Haniyeh agreement is based on a document drafted by a coalition of jailed Palestinian militant leaders that calls for Hamas's integration into the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Because the PLO is the signatory to peace accords with Israel, the bargain is seen as a major departure for Hamas, which has opposed peace negotiations and the idea of Israeli and Palestinian states coexisting alongside one another. The document also calls for a unity government with Fatah, another concession by the Islamic militants who would be admitting they are unable to govern without the help of their bitter adversaries.
No matter how tortuous the path, the Palestinian/Israeli road map only has one destination.
MORE:
Hamas U-turn on Israel's right to exist (Tim Butcher, 28/06/2006, Daily Telegraph)
With Israel threatening to re-invade Gaza, Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement, made a historic policy reversal yesterday when it signed up to an agreement implicitly recognising the right of the Jewish state to exist.
Victory for Abbas as Hamas gives in on peace talks (Chris McGreal, June 28, 2006, the Guardian)
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, won his biggest political gamble yesterday when Hamas bowed to an ultimatum to accept the pursuit of a negotiated permanent peace with Israel or face a referendum on the issue.If it had gone to a ballot and he had lost, Mr Abbas would have been out of power. But his closest aides said he had little to lose given his isolation by Israel and Hamas's insistence that it spoke for the people after its landslide election victory in January. Meanwhile, the Palestinian economy was rapidly collapsing under international sanctions in response to the Islamist government's refusal to recognise Israel.
Yesterday the gamble paid off as Hamas cut its losses and decided not to face the people.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2006 7:36 PM
Such is the discipline of democracy.
Yes it does... The destination of the Pals getting kicked across the borders to be cared for by their beloved Arab allies.
Posted by: tps at June 27, 2006 8:18 PMNot going to happen. Israel canm barely survive in the territory it's reduced itself to.
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2006 9:45 PMPalestina rightly belongs to the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs are just squaters and should be sent packing.
Posted by: lebeaux at June 27, 2006 10:27 PMWhen are we giving America back to its rightful owners?
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2006 10:46 PM"When are we giving America back to its rightful owners?" As soon as we find their phone number. I think I have it written down right next to the number for Emperor Constantine XIV of Byzantium.... oh wait that's just some 976 number, nevermind.
Posted by: lebeaux at June 28, 2006 12:31 AMIMPLICITLY.
Gotta love it.
Let's see, now:
* "I've implicitly said, 'I love you.' What do you want from me? Isn't that enough? (Bitch, you'd better pay no attention to those countless times I've said I'm going to hack you to pieces.)"
* "I've implicitly said, 'I'm going to pay you back the millions of dollars I owe you.' (Just disregard those countless times I've said I'd pay you over my dead body.)"
* "I've implicitly said, 'You and me, we can be pals, we can work it out.' (And sonuvagun, for your own good, you had better forget about those years and years of murderous threats I've been making.)"
Time to brush up on our Aesop...
Posted by: Barry Meislin at June 28, 2006 2:47 AMThey're on the Rez. But, as you acknowledge, the idea is a joke. So's that of the Palestinians giving up their nation.
Posted by: oj at June 28, 2006 8:02 AMNothing the Pals have done so far has shown that that they can run or even deserve a 'nation'.
Posted by: tps at June 28, 2006 9:14 AM"Palestinians" have a nation. Several of them in fact. Jordon, Egypt etc. Or the "Arab" nation if you want to get poetic. There is no separate "Palestinian" nation.
Posted by: Bob at June 28, 2006 9:44 AMAnty people who thinks of themselves as a nation is one. Zionism created Palestinianism.
Posted by: oj at June 28, 2006 9:47 AMThey wrung their nation from the most powerful country in the region. Not a bad start.
Posted by: oj at June 28, 2006 9:52 AMIt helps that they chose the only nation in the region that wouldn't simply annihilate them.
Posted by: David Cohen at June 28, 2006 10:31 AMI wouldn't say they 'wrung' it from Isreal. More like Israel nicely offered it to them in exchange for peace and got kicked in the head for it. The Pals have been like spoiled brats and have managed to PO just about everyone in the region at one time or another. Israel really needs to do to them what King Hussein did to them in September 1970. The real 'Black September'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_in_Jordan
Posted by: tps at June 28, 2006 10:34 AMNever say never. God forbid they are able to carry out an attack that kills a percentage like 9/11 did that might just tip things over the edge.
Posted by: tps at June 28, 2006 10:48 AM9/11 didn't.
Posted by: oj at June 28, 2006 12:03 PMThat's because it was still easy to believe, in the USA, that we weren't at war and that the enemy didn't want to destroy us. That's a bit harder to do in Israel.
They do it just fine.
Posted by: oj at June 28, 2006 4:28 PM