Can reckon with them? More like have a day of reckoning with them. The taste of terrorism has to be wiped from their mouths before they will engage in any peace negotiations worthy of the name. A pity, but they have to learn that first before they are worth talking to. And if the long-term cost are Palestinian soccer-riots, well so be it.

Posted by: Mikey at June 13, 2007 5:00 PM

Fatah is obviously yesterday's news, but the reckoning you speak of is much more likely to be a co-ordinated asymmetrical 'war' from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and Syria/Iran against Israel rather than any type of formal negotiation. Consider it July/August 2006 with daily suicide bombings included in the mix (along with the rockets). There will probably be UN action towards Israel as well.

The Palestinians are about to become the proxies of Iran. Not a good place to be if they want to live. The nutjobs may thrive, but the people will suffer a lot worse. They're just dirty Arabs to Mahmoud, after all.

Let's hope that Israel (and George Bush) realize that if the terror war escalates, Damascus should be the next IDF target. Ignore the Hezbos, kill every Hamas fighter in sight, and overthrow the Ba'athists. Who knows, Mahmoud might even be tempted to do something really stupid.

That too is a reckoning, just not the one that's going to occur.

oj,
As has been copiously commented on by various blogs whatever, the two state solution is at hand, Gaza is Hamas, the West Bank is Fatah.
No matter what kind of spin is put on it, these people are certifiably insane. Outside of the arguments over which group most wants to kill all the Jews and remove Israel from the map of the Mid-East, and is the most corrupt, they are really identical parties.
Mike

Gee, corrupt secular Marxist terrorists vs. corrupt Islamic fanatic Jew-hating terrorists: forgive me for hoping for maximum casualties on both sides....

Hamas is so popular because of a relatively low level of corruption for the Middle East.

Mike:

The electorate begs to differ.

OJ, Why have you fallen in love with Hamas, the Iranians and others who want to exterminate Israel (and its inhabitants)?

The 'electorate' is supposedly 90% against this civil war.

If Hamas is so pure, then why not wait for the next election to solidify everything? And why still the Jew-hatred? That is 'corrupt' in and of itself.

By taking Iranian money, they have shown their 'purity'. Fatah is probably worse on a simple graft scale, but they've had years to perfect their hypocrisy.

What's love got to do with it? It's in Israel's interest for popular government to function in Palestine. Hamas affords the best opportunity for that functionality.

Likewise, if Israel chooses to exterminate the Palestinians it has carte blanche to do so when attacked by an independent state, but would suffer if it took identical actions against territories and a de facto occuppied population.

Love or hate Hamas, its consolidation of power is a manifest good for Israel.

Because they can read the newspapers?

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1180960627749

A Hamas government will be about as 'functional' as one from Albania, North Korea, or the Soviet Union.

Perhaps that is best for Israel. It certainly isn't for the Palestinians. I wonder if the Egyptians will close the border and enforce it with machine-gun fire?

Then the Paslestinians will vote them out. But they've been effective at providing social services in the past.