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A thread about the ongoing situation in Palestine

All Acting Regiment

13:35 / 18.06.07

Okay, I'll start with a quote from this post at Lenin's Tomb:

Okay, now let's add the fact that Fatah gunmen are now operating in villages and towns under Israeli control. Although Hamas are offering dialogue in Gaza and saying that many of the Fatah fighters who fled may now return, Fatah leaders are pleading with Israel to help them get Hamas out of the West Bank. The Heathlander mentions that Palestinians in the West Bank have had to start shaving their beards to avoid being taken for Hamas. In the middle of all this, Fatah's men have shot someone they suspect of collaborating with Israel. Well, at least they've got a sense of fucking humour. Now, with Abbas' coup effected, suddenly USAID is begging to flood the West Bank with food, and Ehud Olmert is saying that he will now give some of the money that Israel has taken from the Palestinians back to them (Israel 'collects' taxes 'for' the Palestinian Authority, but has actually withheld the Palestinians' money from them under the rubric of an economic embargo). And there's an intensifying blockade against Gaza. Bear in mind that this could mean even worse starvation: Gaza is reported to be down to its last two weeks of supplies of some materials.

...and now I'll add that I'm out of my depth with these recent events, which is doubly annoying as I've been steadily reading up about the historical situation (and my word, how harmless and commendable Zionism looks before you read Said or come across certain maps and quotes such as these on a comrade's blog).

So, what's occurring and what do we think about it?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:53 / 18.06.07

Is the fact that the West seems willing to work in some limited way with Fatah good news long-term for getting a peace process going?

All Acting Regiment

15:07 / 18.06.07

Possibly, although Fatah are apparently corrupt and quite likely to lick up to Israel, who have said that a Fatah government is the only one they'll deal with.

20:14 / 18.06.07

"Both the EU and the US promised to lift their boycott of the Palestinians today and pledged support to president Mahmoud Abbas and his new emergency government in the occupied West Bank."

Whee! I thought, then of course found out that the aid won't get there.

"Human rights groups fear that with no products coming into Gaza, the territory will plunge into humanitarian crisis."

20:24 / 18.06.07

That's because of the geographical separation of Gaza and the West Bank thought, isn't it? Makes it easy for the EU and US to support Abbas (currently based in the West Bank and somewhat unlikely to move, I imagine) while leaving Gaza to be hung out to dry.

08:15 / 19.06.07

Is the fact that the West seems willing to work in some limited way with Fatah good news long-term for getting a peace process going?

Financially, politically and militarily backing a coup against an elected government seems to me a very odd way of brokering peace.

09:13 / 19.06.07

Also somewhat undemocratic, which... well, it's easy enough to point out some fairly sharp contrasts in policy and speechifying, but particularly so here.

The major sticking point seems to be that Hamas, unlike Fatah, will not recognise Israel. Given the precious few bargaining chips available to them, it'd be pretty daft of them to do so and I don't think, even on matters of principle or legality, that they necessarily should in any case.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

20:23 / 20.06.07

I can't find the link now, but a few online forums I am part of have been talking about this since the first pictures came through. Some of the ex military guys (some were in the middle east, some are older) have been commenting that they believe that many of the ski mask wearing Hamas soldiers are in fact anglo mercenaries. This has led to people wonder if the west is supplying Hamas, or if the group had a bunch of mercs on call.

All Acting Regiment

15:25 / 21.06.07

Well, proof of that would certainly be interesting. I'm sure there are all kinds of dodgy influences acting on this conflict, on both sides, but that makes speculation without proof somewhat dangerous - there are people who'd have you beleive in a worldwide Islamist assault blah blah fishcakes, when the reality is much more fractured, and other people who still tout Anti-semitic conspiracy theories, when the reality is much simpler and has to do with human greed and trauma.

Lenin's sources frequently suggest that Fatah is infiltrated by various pro-western interests. I don't know. What I think is becoming quite obvious is that, while Hamas do not immediately seem like the best group to be in charge of any country, they do stand for an assertion of Palestinian rights - now, my reading of history tells me that conflict only really stops when not just a peace, but a fair peace, is acheived - i.e. when iniquity is removed. By "co-operating" with Israel, that is, on Israel's terms, Fatah make this unlikely. I expect that a peace acheived with Fatah would not last very long, because the fundamental problems, demonstrated by this map, won't have gone away:

Without wanting to preach, when we talk about this conflict it is our duty to remember that this is not a case of a few malcontents and Jew-haters trying to spoil the innocent aspirations of "the Jews" to get "their own land" - this is a case of a traumatised, violated Arabic people fighting back against a hundred or more years of successive, extremely violent, waves of mass American- and European-backed invasion, specifically by Zionists, with no respect and no interest for the people already living in Palestine - remember many Jewish people worldwide are opposed to this.

Israel's behaviour has been intolerable for a long time, with perhaps the most dangerous activites beside attacks on Palestinian villages being the Israeli domination of, and creation of, the "Jewish narrative" - the pushing of a story where the only possible outcome for "the Jews", after all their suffering in Europe, is to take this land, and that anyone who criticises this is an anti-semite. Not to mention other insulkts - a recent news story talked about Israel squandering money meant for concentration camp survivors on weaponry.