June 22, 2007
AND WE WONDER WHY THEY HATE US?:
Israel and Palestine pushed closer together (Con Coughlin 22/06/2007, Daily Telegraph)
One of the more remarkable features of the past few days has been the almost indecent haste with which the key Quartet players - America and the EU - have rushed to restore ties with the newly formed government of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Suddenly everyone - the Israelis, the Americans, Britain, Brussels - wants to talk to the Palestinians and give them support.Millions of dollars worth of aid, which had previously been denied, is flooding into the West Bank in an attempt to revive the Palestinian economy and thereby shore up support for Mr Abbas's government. Next week Israel and the Palestinian Authority will attempt to kick-start the negotiating process when they attend a hastily arranged regional summit in Egypt.
Indeed, the more one looks at these rapidly unfolding developments, the more one is struck by how convenient Hamas's Gazan putsch has been for all those with a genuine interest in reviving some form of dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.
As the bitter power struggle between the rival Hamas and Fatah wings of the Palestinian government escalated over the past month, it was generally accepted that Israel was more sympathetic to the Fatah-dominated security apparatus run by Mohammed Dahlan, Mr Abbas's chief security adviser.
But the fact that Israeli gunboats were deployed off the Gazan coast, ready to evacuate key Fatah officials when it became clear they were no match for Hamas's Iranian-trained and equipped fighters, suggests that the Israeli military had a profound understanding of the likely outcome of a fight provoked by Fatah in the first place.
And even if the violence resulted in the summary execution of several leading Fatah commanders by their Hamas captors, Hamas's exclusion from the political process could be regarded as a major bonus both for Israel and the more moderate Palestinians.
What makes the Poles so remarkable is that they still like us despite our doing things like this to them repeatedly. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 22, 2007 12:00 AM
Doing thing's like this to them repeatedly?! If it wasn't for us, there wouldn't even BE a Poland anymore.
Posted by: Brandon at June 22, 2007 10:43 AMA little more timely response from us would have saved everybody a passel of trouble, not to mention millions of lives. Trouble was we had to wait until Hitler turned on Uncle Joe before we could step in and then we gave him Poles among others to oppress for 50 more years.
Posted by: erp at June 22, 2007 11:58 AMThe Poles are treated worse by the Euros.
Btw, the Poles and the others were not ours to give. We were never omnipotent. Besides, there were uncle Joe's accolades in Roosevelt's State Dept. shilling for him. A lot of the States wisemen thought USSR was for us to emulate. Alger Hiss and some others in the States Dept. were Soviet spies and sympathizers.
Posted by: ic at June 22, 2007 1:44 PMLittle Boy could have made Poland whole and free.
Posted by: oj at June 22, 2007 3:24 PMIIRC and I do, Poland and all of Europe, not to mention the rest of the world, were ours to give and we courteously stepped aside, so the noble experiment could continue and the savants back home could soften us up to join them ASAP.
Posted by: erp at June 22, 2007 5:07 PMXIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.
There wasn't a Poland in 1918. We made one. That is not overturned by the fact that we allowed the Russians to dominate it for a while.
Posted by: Brandon at June 22, 2007 6:28 PMOf course there was a Poland.
Posted by: oj at June 22, 2007 7:02 PMI suspect that "I was rescued by an Israeli gunboat" doesn't bode well for a Palestinian politician's career.
But will anyone be there to rescue Hamas when the reckoning comes?
Posted by: ratbert at June 22, 2007 11:22 PM