Palestine open thread

So much to discuss and think about… Check out Laila el-Haddad’s great writing from Gaza. Also this report from today’s WaPo, spelling out quite clearly that,

    Israel this week allowed the Palestinian party Fatah to bring into the Gaza Strip as many as 500 fresh troops trained under a U.S.-coordinated program to counter Hamas…

How tragic for two generations of secular Palestinian nationalists that the organization that has dominated their movement for 40 years has now turned into an almost exact replica of the “Inkatha Freedom Party” that was armed, financed, and supported by the apartheid regime in South Africa to battle the ANC in the waning days of apartheid. Those clashes killed thousands upon thousands of Black South Africans… and for what?
Now, these Fateh units armed and trained by the US are being sent in to torpedo the National Unity Government that the Palestinian political leaders had painstakingly negotiated and put together with the help of the Saudis… and for what?
Divide and rule. It’s the oldest game in the playbook of imperial powers and sometimes the only one they know how to play.

47 thoughts on “Palestine open thread”

  1. “Now, these Fateh units armed and trained by the US are being sent in to torpedo the National Unity Government that the Palestinian political leaders had painstakingly negotiated and put together with the help of the Saudis”
    wasn’t it hamas that started the current round of fighting and thus, hamas that is trying to torpedo the unity government?

  2. Any chance of you writing a column about this in the press?
    I read Tony Karon’s piece about it at the Rootless Cosmopolitan, but I bet most Americans are just going to see this as those Arabs killing each other. Not that one shouldn’t be angry at both Hamas and Fatah, IMO, but Americans should know about the role of our own government in bringing things to this point.

  3. This is another clear example of the Bush administration’s contempt for real democracy. Everything I have read from informed sources says that Hamas won the elections primarily as a rebuke to the longstanding corruption of the ruling Fatah party, not on the basis of terrorism. But Bush and Co. take the position that only those who agree with their program are entitled to be democratically elected. They are continuing the American tradition of more than half a century of destabilizing and overthrowing any regime, even one democratically elected, which doesn’t sign on to whatever program the administration wants – another Mossedegh in Iran, Allende in Chile, etc., etc.,etc….

  4. I hope that Washington Post article becomes well known. Maybe a congressman can raise the issue during a session. Neither Israel nor the United States can be allowed to show any favoritism to either side. Instead those two parties should keep their hands off and see if other brokers, maybe the Saudis?, can stop the killing.
    What are motivating the Fatah fighters on the ground? Are all of them ardently pro-U.S. and pro-Israeli? I find that hard to believe, even about the 500 U.S. trained troops. If this is not the case then why are fatah foot soldiers going along with this fight?
    Also, you’ve pointed out a concrete example of Israel and the U.S. showing a bias to one side of the fighting. But is that enough to then make the leap of accusing Fatah of being a U.S./Israel puppet, who’s doing everything on those two’s orders? Some people are making that leap, but I wonder if that’s realistic. I agree that any interference from the U.S. and Israel needs to be identified and halted. But are the Palestinian factions completely blameless in perpetuating this fight? I’m concerned about responding to this crisis with an easy answer like “It’s all an Israeli and U.S. conspiracy!”

  6. Helena
    “these Fateh units armed and trained by the US are being sent in to torpedo
    Helena whatever the motive behind WP article its clearly this is what US doing in ME “Chaos Status) which well serve Israel and US goals in the region despite hopeless words of Palestinians State all that rubbish we fed for 50 years..
    Thos 500 mercenaries whoever they are may be Arab or not may be fatah member or not they use same way of head cover to masked their identity which never been in the past used in the region conflicts before this scenario came by 2003 in Iraq and its demonstrated those mercenaries doing a paid job.

  7. Divide and rule. It’s the oldest game in the playbook…
    no older than the game of Provoke the common enemy when you want to bring intra-tribal feuding to a halt.

  8. I think it is fairly clear that the 500 fighters and their considerable arms and ammunition, not to mention their air support are intended to install Dahlan as a strong man. In the tradition of Pinochet, Mobutu, Reza Shah, Mubarek, Musharef and hundreds more (one of them having been Saddam) in order to repress Palestine in the interests of the United States and its imperial allies. It has all been very well telegraphed. In the short run there will be terrible suffering as journalists twist themselves into knots explaining how Palestinians really want to be ruled by the agents of their enemies. There will be torture, assassinations, beatings and arbitrary detentions too but so there have been for forty years now and support for the torturers and assassins just keeps growing. The only wild card in this pack is the Palestinian people who have defied sixty years of terror and trickery. I would not be surprised if they do it again.
    It seems that the United States (et allies) is absolutely determined that every Arab and muslim in the world is dragooned into active emnity. After setting the Pashtun world alight they attacked the Arabs in Iraq, insisting that every one of them take sides against them, sending out patrols in the middle of the night to wake people up and remind them that the United States hates them and despises them. The shia, delighted at Saddam’s fall needed extra prodding so Moqtada al Sadr was outlawed.. The Lebanese needed to be woken up so Israel bombed them for weeks… The Somalis seemed to be settling down for a spot of reconciliation and rebuilding but we couldn’t have that so the Ethiopian army was armed, bribed and set to work killing muslims… need we mention Iran or Syria? Muslims in the Phillipines being hounded by death squads with US trainers? The people of southern Thailand? The tyrants bankrolled in Pakistan and Egypt… The list goes on. As to why the United States should be so unpopular in muslim countries nobody knows. It is a riddle which probably requires a lengthy analysis of the quran and the traditions of islamic scholarship to disentagle. It will have nothing to do with the millions whose deaths our governments have caused.

  10. Let’s not go off on wild tangents about other conflict issues and focus specifically on the issue of interference in this fighting via these 500 troops and support for Dahlan. The media needs to shine the sun on Dahlan to scare his support away. But even if Dahlan disappeared, is that enough to end the fighting?

  11. The problem is that these are not tangential matters. Washington does not see them as such, they are all paid for from the same budget and by the same taxpayers: the millions given to Fatah to influence the last election, the money Ethiopia needed to buy arms from North Korea, the salaries of the sabotage teams in Iran, blowing up police stations and promoting inter racial strife, the subsidies to Kenya for help in steering refugees from Somalia into prison camps. The terrible truth is that almost every fire on earth is regularly refreshed with copious supplies of gasoline supplied by the poor benighted American taxpayer. Who, having been informed of the existence of so many fires, is then conned into making a further contribution to extinguish them.
    Is this because Americans are evil? Of course not: it is because their government is quite openly determined to dominate the world. The remarkable thing is that there is hardly a whisper in Congress questioning the extraordinary radicalism of policies designed to make enemies for the American people. Has there even been a Congress in American history as craven as the 21st century ones are? Never has the country had so much potential power, never have its rulers been less capable, intellectually or morally, of employing that power sensibly. My hope is that Truesdell can explain..

  13. My hope is that Truesdell can explain..
    The invasion of Iraq cannot be justified…it has to be one of the dumbest moves in the history of the republic.
    As to the Democratic congress, they are always fearful that the Republicans will outflank them on security issues. 9/11 gave Bush an opening to pursue his own feckless foreign agenda. It remains to be seen if Hillary/Obama and a big Democratic congressional majority will swing back to the policy of low key responses to terrorist provocations…there were many in the 90s beginning with World Trade Center I and continuing with African Embassy bombings, Khobar Tower, SS Cole, etc.
    Somehow a proper balance must be struck.
    And maybe Bevin can explain what he would have had the US do about the Rwandas, Darfurs, Kosovos, etc.?

  14. Let’s not go off topic and say, talk about the residents of Sderot, who have been beseiged and traumatized by Qassams.

  15. I don’t know whether anyone notices, but Iran has now made it their official position to call for a one-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict:
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/861167.html
    ….”Despite the good [intentions] of some countries and some parties to protect the right of Palestinians, we do believe that either due to the plans or due to the other side’s approach, all of those plans will fail,” he said.
    “If we talk based on realities, I do not see any chance,” Mottaki added.
    At its core, the Saudi initiative accepts a two-state solution, which Iran is famous for highly rejecting.
    Mottaki said that the important conditions outlined in the initiative would not be carried out.
    “No capital for Palestine, no for the returning of the refugees who stand up to five million Palestinians,” he told journalists.
    “We can recognize more than 132 plans for peace in the last 30 years. Why were these plans or initiatives not met or realized?” Mottaki said. Iran, he added, has proposed a “democratic free and fair referendum” where, in his words, original Muslim, Christian and Jewish Palestinians would vote and choose their regime.
    He said his country did not recognize Israel’s regime, nor does it view it as legitimate…..

  16. the residents of Sderot, who have been beseiged and traumatized by Qassams
    Sderot is largely populated by poor sephardic Jews whose families were forced to leave Arab countries three generations ago and by Black refugees from Ethiopia…one would have thought that these are the sort of people that would command sympathy from the Left.

  17. bevin, if Washington sees them as such then we change Washington’s perspective. A goal should then be a revised foreign policy that does not drown out the specificities of each issue in one catch-all ideology. All you’re doing is joining in with the neocons in their catch-all perspective, and indulging in it. You get yourself off by wildly spewing cartoonish rhetoric like “every fire on earth is regularly refreshed”, seemingly for no purpose other than to inflate your ego by beating up on U.S.-ians and trying to pass yourself off as some master race because you’re Canadian.
    BTW, Joshua, Qassams can be dangerous, but they can’t be aimed and their range is small. The Qassams are a joke compared to the weaponary Hezbollah could muster. When Israel responds to the Qassams, it’s important not to blow their threat out of proportion. And as I said before, Israel’s role should be either to stay above the fray or work to end the fighting, not to exacerbate the situation via proping up Dahlan.

  18. Truesdell, I just read your post. I did notice that in the news reports about Qassam attacks all the Israeli residents appeared of African origin. I think these attacks sheds light on the issue of Israel’s manipulation of its immigrants. I’ve heard Israel has tried to railroad new immigrants into danger zones like Sderot, and to settlement camps. It’s not fair to people trying to fulful the Aliyah to turn them into political footballs in the service of unfair policies such as the settlements.

  19. settlements?
    huh?
    Sderot is within Israel’s green lines…it is not territory occupied in 1967…Or does that not matter to you?

  21. Inkan,
    I don’t believe that Israel is trying to prop up Dahlan:
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/861417.html
    What are “settlement camps”? There were refugee camps (ma’abarot) some 50 years ago, but no one has been “railroaded”. Amir Peretz lives there, and, while he is of “African origin”, as you say, I don’t believe he feels “railroaded” or “manipulated”.
    In point of fact, by all accounts Sderot was a safe and relatively comfortable place until the Qassams started seven years ago.

  22. المقاومة وتأثيرها على إسرائيل 2007-05-19
    نوهت صحيفة ” معاريف ” في عددها الصادر امس الجمعة الى خمسة بدائل ستناقشها الحكومة الاسرائيلية في جلستها الاحد القادم لحل مشكلة اطلاق صواريخ القسام على منطقة النقب المحتل. ونوهت الصحيفة الى أنه على رأس هذه البدائل تقع القيام بعملية برية واسعة النطاق، على اعتبار أن بمثل هذه العملية فقط يمكن اسرائيل من حسم المواجهة ضد حركة حماس.
    السيطرة على مناطق محددة
    تصفية قيادة حماس
    حل تكنلوجي

  23. Made me suspicious. All these ‘unknown’ attackers and gunmen behind the Hamas-Fatah inner struggle. It may be very likely all a set up, and sounds like the Sunni-Shia clashes in Iraq. Divide and rule, it says a lot. Thanks Helena.
    This article says a lot too:
    The Hidden Hand Behind The “Hamas-Fatah Clashes”
    http://tinyurl.com/29ky2q
    “Hmmm…things are starting to get a little foggy here. All of the above makes it sound like neither Fatah nor Hamas have any idea exactly who is carrying out these attacks, and are blaming each other, or assigning responsibility to unknown “suspicious groups”. I wonder who they might be…”
    Jon

  24. Moving beyond Gaza, Zionist /US efforts to provoke a civil war in Lebanon seem to be bearing fruit. The media reports today that a number of people have died in clashes between the Lebanese army and “extremist gunmen”
    A truly just world gets further out of reach almost every day.
    –


  25. Zionist /US efforts to provoke a civil war in Lebanon

    Say what? The Lebanese army going after a robbery suspect is Zionist/US? Either do some reading and/or have your brain examined.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6673639.stm
    Unprovoked aggression’
    Fighting erupted on Sunday morning after security forces raided a building in Tripoli to arrest suspects in a bank robbery.
    The problem began with repeated arrests of our brothers in Tripoli. We’ve always defended Sunnis in Lebanon
    Abu Salim
    Fatah Islam spokesman
    After resisting arrest, militants said to belong to Fatah Islam then attacked army posts at the entrances to the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, which is home to some 30,000 displaced Palestinians.
    The military is banned from entering the camp under a 38-year-old deal.
    Several hours later a large force of Lebanese troops hit back at Fatah Islam, storming the building on the outskirts of Tripoli and killing a number of militants.
    Fatah Islam spokesmen portrayed the fighting as an unprovoked aggression by the Lebanese army.
    “The problem began with repeated arrests of our brothers in Tripoli. We’ve always defended Sunnis in Lebanon,” a spokesman called Abu Salim told al-Jazeera TV.
    Hariri link?
    Fatah Islam is a radical Palestinian splinter group alleged to have links with al-Qaeda. Lebanese officials also believe it has ties to Syrian intelligence.

  26. Truesdell: “…A goal should then be a revised foreign policy that does not drown out the specificities of each issue in one catch-all ideology. All you’re doing is joining in with the neocons in their catch-all perspective, and indulging in it…”
    So far as the questions of “catch all ideologies” are concerned , you may be closing in on the truth which is that the foreign policy alternatives in question are narrowed in range because they are underpinned by imperialism. If the democrats and republicans seem like tweedle dee and tweedle dum it is because they are both committed to US hegemony. And that depends, in a world in which Imperial ambition is no longer disguised as “Wilsonianism” or anti-communist crusading for liberty, on force. The choice then is between Empire and resistance to it.
    We ought to be clear about that: withdrawing troops “over the horizon”, retreating to bases, maintaining naval and air power in the Persian Gulf are merely variations on the theme of insisting that Arabs do as they are bid. All of them imply the right to employ force against them at will. I find that unacceptable, so I believe do the mass of those living in the middle east. Realistically then we must either, like the neocons, say that we don’t care what subject races want and that the Empire must do as it pleases, or urge withdrawal, unconditionally, leaving the matter of reparations to some International body which will presumably consult the local precedent established after Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait.
    On a personal note, please do not trouble yourself with fantasies regarding the motives of your correspondent.

  27. Just to clarify, I wrote that, not Truesdell. And I am not closing in on any pile of long winded dogma that you’re labeling “truth”. I won’t be “clear” about your ideological description of troop withdrawals and I refuse to be imprisoned in any “either or” choice.
    J. Monti, that link you provided went as far as to claim that al-Qaeda was some US/Israeli front, even describing Dr. al-Zawahiri as residing in some “Mossad owned massage parlour in Tel Aviv”.

  28. Doris – there is growing evidence that the US is arming and funding extremist Sunni groups in Lebanon, in order to stir up Shi’a – Sunni tensions. This has been reported in Arab media and by Sy Hersch.
    I don’t know if today’s events had anything to do with this arming/funding or not.
    Also, the bushies are doing the same thing with extremist Sunni groups in Saudi Arabia – these are not al Qaeda groups – they are al Qaeda-LIKE groups. I am not sure what the extremist groups in Saudi Arabia are supposed to do, but my guess is that it has something to do with IRAQ……..

  29. Well, if it’s reported in the Arab media and Sy Hersch says so, then it must be true.
    That aside, irrespective of who might be arming Fatah, no one has asked the question of who has heavily armed and trained Hamas.

  31. I have not heard anything about who is arming and funding Hamas, but considering they were elected with popular support, I would suspect the population is probably behind it. I don’t know who is behind the Qassam rockets.
    The Qassam rockets are a horror, and the stupid and immoral ones shooting them off should be detained and tried. But the world should realize that those folks have no corner on the market of stupid and immoral – the vastly more deadly response by Israel shows they are none too bright either.
    I wonder if Israel is ever going to realize that what they are doing is not helpful to Israel.

  33. “The Qassam rockets are a horror, and the stupid and immoral ones shooting them off should be detained and tried.”
    Very good. How much time should Israel give them to turn themselves in for prosecution and a trial?
    If they don’t voluntarily turn themselves in, when can Israel go and get them?
    And if they and their buddies resist violently, what measures can Israel take in return?
    Meanwhile, what’s your feeling on how Lebanon is dealing with their little problem in Tripoli? Are you even aware of what’s going on in Lebanon now?

  34. I have not heard anything about who is arming and funding Hamas, but considering they were elected with popular support, I would suspect the population is probably behind it. I don’t know who is behind the Qassam rockets.
    I think it’s important to know who is arming them, and the indications are that it’s Iran. Bullets, RPGs and explosives are all expensive, yet Hamas does not appear to have a shortage of any, while the Palestinians of Gaza don’t have enough food.
    Hamas was elected with popular support. I would remind you that Abu Mazen was also elected with popular support and that, further, the PA system of government is mainly presidential in nature (that’s the way Arafat designed it).
    Finally, you claim to read the press. Hamas has been openly acknowledging that they are firing the Qassams since this round of attacks began last week. Just today, they threatened to extend the range to Ashkelon. So I guess that the “stupid and immoral” ones are the very same people who were elected with popular support!

  36. “Meanwhile, what’s your feeling on how Lebanon is dealing with their little problem in Tripoli? Are you even aware of what’s going on in Lebanon now?”
    I would say that Sinora (sp?) is following Olmart’s (sp_)tactics – bad idea. very bad idea.
    I really suspect those “al Qaeda” like terrorists were armed and funded by US sources. So, if they had not done that, then Lebanon would not be facing this violence.
    Sure hope no one takes it into their heads to bomb the USA because our government is doing immoral and horrible things around the world – I would hate to see noncombatants killed because of THAT – oh, wait, already happened. Same for Israel –
    obviously, this is not working all that well, unless eternal war and violence is your goal – which I suspect it is for some of the “characters” in this global “play”.
    Violence begets violence. And we have got to find a way to solve problems without resorting to violence as a first choice.

  37. I’ve heard claims that “Fatah Islam” has al-Qaeda connections, Syrian connections, Israeli connections, U.S. connections. It seems everyone wants to link Fatah Islam with their pet enemy, while no evidence has actually of any connections to anybody. This Fatah Islam group itself appears to be an obscure group with little support from people living in the camp. Making groundless connections serves no purpose.
    Lebanon has a justification to fight back against these attackers. People wanted Lebanon to fight back against the IDF last year when the IDF attacked its territory; I don’t see why Lebanon can’t do the same against Fatah Islam.
    I’m concerned though as to how many bystanders living in the camp are going to get caught in the middle. CNN curiously enough was broadcasting the fighting live ( the other U.S. stations were broadcasting a Los Angeles car chase live ). They even had a report on the squalid conditions of the camp. At the very least, this tragedy might bring some new emphasis on the right of return.
    BTW, Susan, Seymour Hersh has no credibility with me. I think it’s been over a year since the last definite starting date of war with Iran that Hershe predicted. Hersh always makes lurid claims that sound constructed such as to tell hardline leftists exactly what they want to hear.

  38. Susan, Seniora is a lot harsher than Olmert.
    When Israeli shells or missles erroneously hit camps, the world screams with outrage. Seniora is just lobbing shells into the camps.

  39. “Lebanon has a justification to fight back against these attackers. People wanted Lebanon to fight back against the IDF last year when the IDF attacked its territory; I don’t see why Lebanon can’t do the same against Fatah Islam.”
    oh, and it worked out SO WELL for everyone last summer, that I am sure it will all be flowers and candies again this time around/ end snark
    “I’ve heard claims that “Fatah Islam” has al-Qaeda connections, Syrian connections, Israeli connections, U.S. connections. It seems everyone wants to link Fatah Islam with their pet enemy, while no evidence has actually of any connections to anybody. This Fatah Islam group itself appears to be an obscure group with little support from people living in the camp. Making groundless connections serves no purpose.”
    so, what are your links or grounds for claiming that there are al-Qaeda, Syrian, Israeli connections?
    My sources for claims that the US is backing some Sunni extremist group (not sure if this is Fatah Islam) are Hersch and several Arab press accounts as translated by Missing Links blogger.
    I am certain they have little support inside the camps, and I would bet by the time the Lebanon military is done, they too will have little support in the camps.

  40. The deeply depressing aspect of Gaza is how rapidly it has descended into anarchy, lawlessness and chaos since Hamas won the elections. What an opportunity Hamas had. No Israeli settlements, no IDF occupation, the Israelis had even turned over the Philadelphi crossing to the PA. At the time I thought Hamas would bring security to Gaza and would establish moral authority, order, focus, discipline and good governance as Hezbollah had done in southern Lebanon. The Palestinians were hoping so too, that’s why they elected them so overwhelmingly.
    What a bad joke. Alan Johnston has been a prisoner for two months now and Hamas does not even have the power to get him released. Pathetic.
    Gaza is pretty much effed. Israel won’t much care – its priority has always been the West Bank. Gaza can go to hell in its own way as far as Israel is concerned. And what is almost certain now is that Palestine will split irrevocably into two parts. The long struggle for liberation is ending with a whimper.

  41. Bb, your: how rapidly [Gaza} has descended into anarchy, lawlessness and chaos since Hamas won the elections…
    Not “rapid” at all. Hamas won the elections in January 2006, in an already extremely poverty-stricken, besieged, and chronically stressed community. For a year thereafter, while the US and Israel did just about everything they could think of to undermine the elected Hamas government– including tightening the economic siege, launching direct and lethal threats against any political independents who even considered taking up Hamas’s invitation to join a National Unity Government, launching fairly frequent assassination raids into Gaza, etc, etc– the Hamas leadership stuck unilaterally by the tahdi’a and tried to form a functioning administration for all the OPTs, but most especially Gaza.
    Your assertion that the Israelis had even turned over the Philadelphi crossing to the PA is quite wrong. Israel still maintained control over all passage thru the crossing via the EU monitors who had to get Israeli permission for every single persons who wanted to cross, either way, from then on. And meanwhile, the suffocating closures Israel maintained on the passage of goods thru the Karni crossing were another weapon of blunt coercion. (Part of Dov Weisglas’s forced “diet.” How sick.)
    … And throughout all those months, the US was plotting with the Egyptians and others to try to train up a nominally “Fatah” force that would be ready and willing to confront Hamas in the street and generally sow chaos in Gaza. It took ’em a while; and even now I’m not sure how “loyal” those newly-trained fighters really are to their US paymasters… But your narrative of the Hamas election victory having “rapidly” and on its own plunged Gaza into chaos just comes acorss as completely cockeyed.
    Have you ever been to Gaza and seen how bad things were already at the time of the Hamas victory? Are you even aware of the many actions the US and Israel have taken since January 2006 to undermine Hamas?
    I was there in early March 2006. You can read several of my accounts of how bad things were then in the archives of this blog. Or go read some of the many other accounts– including by Alan Johnston, on the BBC website– on how bad things were in January 2006 and how badly the US and Israel have behaved since then. Your accusations against Hamas have zero evidence to back them up.

  42. Haven’t been to Gaza, West Bank or Israel, but have read the issue voraciously for decades, including and especially Amira Haas and Gideon Levy for years.
    However, my initial optimism/expectations about Hamas was greatly influenced at the time by your own blog. Refreshing myself today as a result of your suggestion reminded me why.
    You wrote very positively about Hamas and conducted many interesting interviews early last year. On Mar 19 you blogged about the Hamas cabinet being largely technocrat. On Mar 25 you wrote under “Who are the Palestinian Militants?” about Hamas discipline and restraint and commented persuasively “militants these days are associated with Fateh, not Hamas”. On April 11, Jonathan Edelstein in the comments under “Eyeless in Gaza” wrote that he was “cautiously optimistic” Hamas would establish a monopoly of force in Gaza and added “as you (ie Helena) have pointed out before Hamas is following the Hizbullah playbook and one of HA’s policies is to assume sole control of the struggle within its operational area”
    On May 9 you wrote of your prediction that the new Kadima govt would make conciliatory moves towards Hamas as having come true under “Kadima Govt helps break the boycott on Hamas” (I assumed this was coming from Kadima sources you had)
    As I recall it was after this apparent breakthrough that further internicine fighting between Hamas and Fateh broke out. This led to the Prisoners’s Plan that you blogged about on May 26. The fighting escalated with Abbas threatening referendums etc and then Hamas and Fateh met over the negotiating table while Israel approved a shipment of arms to Abbas “Divide and Rule Israeli style” June 13.
    It was only a couple of days later when the Abbas/Hamas agreement was supposed to be sealed and only awaiting signature that the Hamas military wing participated with others in a tunnel raid into Israel itself, killed two soldiers and kidnapped another who is still in their custody and provoked the ghastly Israeli response one can only assume it was intended to do.
    It was sadly ironic to re-read your “Pass the Smelling Salts” blog back on the previous March 22 when Israeli justifications for closing the Karni Crossing on the grounds that Palestinians were digging tunnels under the border into Israel were debunked.
    At the time your interview with Mahmoud Zahha on March 18 read very positively. However from today’s persective it is hard not to see it as anything but an exercise in Hamas hubris in relation both to Fateh and to Israel?
    Whatever, far from establishing a monopoly of force and establishing sole control of the struggle in its area by participating in the tunnel raid last June Hamas has by today turned Gaza into a Mogadishu. For that it bears responsibility, don’t you think?

  43. Joshua says: “When Israeli shells or missiles erroneously hit camps, the world screams with outrage. Seniora is just lobbing shells into the camps”.
    I hear this sort of statement often when it comes to rationalizing Israeli violence. It’s a movement away from looking at what Israel {actually} does on the ground, towards this strange anti-empirical obsession with intentionality. The supposed proof for this difference in intentionality seems to be that Israel will say ‘Oh, well, we didn’t mean to kill those civilians’. Thus, to formally break it down, Evidence=the Word of the Perpetrator.
    What actually matters is behavior. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize this basic fact. Certainly Seniora is being barbaric and heavy-handed up in the North, but Israel is no less reckless and murderous in its behavior toward civilians. I’m tired of this obfuscating semantics.

  44. Warren L I suspect you may find this Rocketboom
    exposition of “The Art of Reason” an interesting and entertaining refresher on the rules of logical argument.
    Summary:
    List of logical fallacies from the art of reason, post hoc, appeal to majority, appeal to force, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, begging the question, diversion, non sequiter, subjectivism, straw man, false alternative, ad hominem, tu quoque, poisoning the well, appeal to ignorance, complex question

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