Fatah v Hamas

“We cannot stand idly by and let a free and democratic people decide (yes, DECIDE) to go communist.” - Henry Kissinger-

A post this morning at the Huffington Post (actually June 16) made my blood boil regarding the recent civil war in Palestine with the Fatah party and the democratically elected Hamas party. I will summarize this article and the Robert Fisk article at the UK/Independent on the crisis. You should read them for yourself, but they are almost opposite sides of the spectrum and what I see in the Thatcher article repeating the same old arguments is a refusal to accept Palestinians as humans.

The article by Zachary Thatcher criticized the New York Times for criticizing Israel. He attacks the Times for siding with the Fatah party over Hamas because it accepts Israel's right to exist. Thatcher (as wish washy and pale yellow as the Times editorial is) does not accepts this and says that: "Who started the second intifada after Arafat's refusal for an agreement in the Camp David Accords of 2001? That was a pure Fatah play, with Hamas as wary participants. Why have thousands of missiles rained on Israel from Fatah-controlled territory in Gaza for the past several years...Sadly, it isn't hard to imagine Fatah eagerly invading Israel, should it be military weakened from an attack by Syria or Iran. Attacks they openly acknowledge planning and which the West is powerless, or unwilling, to halt."

Basically, Thatcher argues Israel is at the will of the terrorist state of Palestine, a ridiculous argument that is repeated over and over and over and over...by American journalists. This line of thinking is akin to religious thought when one tries to have an intellectual discussion on the actual existence of God. And we are told merely to just believe. In this instance we are told not to investigate what exactly is going on in the West Bank and could a people under such subjugation be engaging in the only resistance they know how - electing the people who actually represent their interests.

Robert Fisk is the preeminent journalist on the middle east, much to America's chagrin. He writes, first we demand the Palestinians elect a democratic government. They "embrace" democracy, but elect the wrong party, Hamas. The U.S. won't negotiate with a party that does not accept Israel's right to exist. So, now Hamas wins a "mini-civil war and presides over the Gaza strip.

Palestinians have the right to ask a question Fisk argues: "No one asked - on our side - which particular Israel Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds - and goes on building - vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22 per cent of “Palestine” still left to negotiate over ?"

So, our goal is to not accept the government of Palestine, but to recognize the previous one that the Palestinian people threw out. They did not do so because they wanted an Islamic state, they did so because of Fatah and its corrupt leadership and the rotten nature of the Palestinian Authority. But they voted for Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel or abide by the totally discredited Oslo agreement. Welcome to the Middle East.

We do so in almost every country we are involved with Fisk says. We love Harmid Karzai with his war lords and drug barons, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt who tortures the opposition (why would the U.S. have a problem with that) and has the support of George Bush, Muommar Khadafi of Lybia, King Abudullah's "unconstitutional" goverment in Jordan, these men all dictators in their own right with distinction.

It is NEVER about Democracy, it is about control Fisk asserts. What will happen in Palestine now? Will we ever have the stomach to criticize our ally Israel and restore a real two-state solution where both states exist with autonomy. Or are we moving down a road where we will now support the "reoccupation" of Palestine and be done with diplomacy. Palestine just does not know how to elect the right governments. If only we could teach them the right form of democracy.

After all Americans are doing such a great job of electing the right government.