February 18, 2008
PROPPING THEM UP...:
FATAH FALLS APART? (Barry Rubin, 2/17/08, GLORIA)
In short, PA and Fatah politics are a mess. This has long been true but few noticed and it didn’t matter when Arafat was alive since he kept the lid on everything, while playing off his subordinates against each other, and provided unity.Now, however, things are different. It is amazing that since Fatah and the PA are the West’s candidate to make good use of almost $7 billion, beat Hamas, establish a Palestinian state, and make peace with Israel, few observers take note of this disastrous situation or factor it into their policies.
Unless Fatah changes its ways, and there is no reason to believe it will do so, one can only wonder if Hamas will be controlling the West Bank, too, within five years. Certainly, one can expect the aid money to disappear without helping the Palestinian people much and be sure that this divided, quarreling leadership will not be able to make peace with Israel.
...is basically a hate crime against the Palestinian people. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 18, 2008 6:54 PM
The problem for the Palestinians is that Hamas is virtually identical. They have a 'secret' leader who doesn't even live in Gaza (or the West Bank). They are a terror organization, and are beholden to Assad, the Saudis, and even Iran.
Sure, Fatah is evil. But so is Hamas. Yassin (and Mashaal) was no less repulsive than Arafat. The Palestinians have been rode hard and hung up wet by the Arab world, and by evil men within their 'group'. It is unlikely that they can climb down and be 'normal' anytime soon.
Posted by: jim hamlen at February 19, 2008 2:01 AMThere's nothing wrong with terror when you're right, as the Israelis proved. Palestinians voted for normalcy and we denied it to them. We'll learn.
Posted by: oj at February 19, 2008 7:37 AM