Hamas Again
Jun. 15th, 2007 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danalwynPerhaps it is no wonder that western news media sometimes gets no respect.
The news headlines across news services have been fairly consistent. First there was "Abbas Dissolves Palestinian Government". Now today there is "Abbas appoints new Palestinian PM" (on BBC). The focus, for BBC, CNN, and the rest of the American front runners, has been on the actions of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and his political actions taken to stem the tide of an upswing in Palestinian political activity.
You have to go down into the articles to actually get to the real meat of the story, which is that Abbas dissolved the government because he was run out of town on a rail; lock, stock, and barrel. If the Conservatives rose up in Britain and evicted Tony Blair from London and shipped him all the way to Paris on a one-way ticket, I would expect the newspaper headlines to read "Revolt in Britain!", not "Blair Calls for New Government". With rare exception, once you get booted out of your own country by your own people, any proclamation you issue has the air of fantastic desperation. Even considering his proclamations about who gets to do what in a country that is now entirely controlled by gun-wielding militants who hate him seems pointless, absurd, and completely irrelevant to the matter at hand. Coups are news. Statements from deposed ex-leaders rarely are.
In the midst of this, some big discussion points are being lost. Was this planned? Abbas is still head of a powerful contingent in the West Bank, is it possible that Fatah allowed Hamas to inherit the monumental headache that is the Gaza Strip? Martin Indyk considers this a possibility. The White House may agree. And what about Hamas? What's their next step? They claim to be unlike the Taliban, but this is their first chance to try and build something out of the failed state of Gaza. How are they planning to do it? Can they keep their own homegrown militants in check?
But nobody seems to be paying attention. Everyone is still off watching Abbas's antics at appointing a new government to rule over the unruly mob that is occupying the Presidential Estate. It will be a while before the western public even realizes that the Gaza experiment has dramatically changed direction, and that Hamastan is now a reality.
This blindness may be a symptom of a nastier disease. It may, after all, reflect the same blindness that allows them to report from the White House on new campaigns to reduce terror in Iraq without bothering to consider what the terrorists are going to do in response.
The news headlines across news services have been fairly consistent. First there was "Abbas Dissolves Palestinian Government". Now today there is "Abbas appoints new Palestinian PM" (on BBC). The focus, for BBC, CNN, and the rest of the American front runners, has been on the actions of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and his political actions taken to stem the tide of an upswing in Palestinian political activity.
You have to go down into the articles to actually get to the real meat of the story, which is that Abbas dissolved the government because he was run out of town on a rail; lock, stock, and barrel. If the Conservatives rose up in Britain and evicted Tony Blair from London and shipped him all the way to Paris on a one-way ticket, I would expect the newspaper headlines to read "Revolt in Britain!", not "Blair Calls for New Government". With rare exception, once you get booted out of your own country by your own people, any proclamation you issue has the air of fantastic desperation. Even considering his proclamations about who gets to do what in a country that is now entirely controlled by gun-wielding militants who hate him seems pointless, absurd, and completely irrelevant to the matter at hand. Coups are news. Statements from deposed ex-leaders rarely are.
In the midst of this, some big discussion points are being lost. Was this planned? Abbas is still head of a powerful contingent in the West Bank, is it possible that Fatah allowed Hamas to inherit the monumental headache that is the Gaza Strip? Martin Indyk considers this a possibility. The White House may agree. And what about Hamas? What's their next step? They claim to be unlike the Taliban, but this is their first chance to try and build something out of the failed state of Gaza. How are they planning to do it? Can they keep their own homegrown militants in check?
But nobody seems to be paying attention. Everyone is still off watching Abbas's antics at appointing a new government to rule over the unruly mob that is occupying the Presidential Estate. It will be a while before the western public even realizes that the Gaza experiment has dramatically changed direction, and that Hamastan is now a reality.
This blindness may be a symptom of a nastier disease. It may, after all, reflect the same blindness that allows them to report from the White House on new campaigns to reduce terror in Iraq without bothering to consider what the terrorists are going to do in response.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-15 11:42 pm (UTC)I think that Israel really wanted this to happen, ever since the Jan 2005 elections- They couldn't deal with a democratically supported Hamas and a unified Palestinian population. Sharon's Pastrami Sandwich plan seems to be working.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-16 04:08 am (UTC)More important, to me at least, is that Gaza is more autonomous than the West Bank seems to be at this time. When I refer to Abbas being kicked out of his "country", I mean that even though he is still a leader in the West Bank, there are now two quasi-countries where there was only one last week. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip in its entirety, which means that they get to make the rules, and I doubt that they will be too eager to power share with Fatah. Any attempt to order a new "compromise" government is probably too little, too late, because he's essentially dealing with an independent country.
I'm suspicious that Fatah, Israel, and the US all wanted this. Fatah is not the most competent political group to be in control, and Hamas is built to exploit this. Now that they're in control, we'll see how well they do.
I hold little hope for Israel finding a subtle way to deal with this though, too much at stake.