Jeff Binkley -> Mimi Gallandt wrote:
 BK>>>>>  However, as you may notice his increasing evasiveness to my
 BK>>>>>  queries, you should begin to suspect he sees things coming
 BK>>>>>  down the pike he won't like.

 BK>>>>   Well, let's see. I had been under the impression you retired

 SH>>> You are talking to yourself again, fat boy.

 MG>> In an attempt to get this thread back on topic I found this the other
 MG>> day:

 MG>> The Shield of Achilles: Civil War Raging In Gaza [Updated]

 MG>> Finally this story is getting the treatment in the press it deserves;
 MG>> this morning it headlined both CNN and Fox News (I discussed it three
 MG>> weeks ago here). The hesitation is telling; it's as if the mainstream
 MG>> media is a little confused when they have a Palestine story that they
 MG>> can't possibly blame on Israel or the US, so they are uncertain how
 MG>> to report it.

 MG>> Well, almost everyone. There are some fringe groups, like the
 MG>> lunatics at "Wakeupfromyourslumber.com" (an
anti-semitic conspiracy
 MG>> theory site, dedicated to destroying Israel) who claim: "Palestinian
 MG>> PM survives assassination attempt at hands of Israel's agents", when
 MG>> in fact it was the Fatah militia that tried to kill the Prime
 MG>> Minister. But since Fatah is considered slightly more moderate than
 MG>> Hamas, and slightly less oriented toward destroying Israel, that
 MG>> somehow makes them "Israeli agents". Never mind the
fact that Fatah
 JB> used
 MG>> to be a part of the PLO...

 MG>> 80 people have been killed since the Hamas-Fatah fighting erupted
 MG>> last month, but it was only Sunday, when two men were publicly killed
 MG>> by throwing them off buildings, that the media started reporting in
 MG>> earnest.

 MG>> Exactly what are they fighting over? After the elections in 2006,
 MG>> Hamas won most of the Parliament seats but have been unable to set up
 MG>> a stable government. Right now, Hamas, which supports the Prime
 MG>> Minister, and Fatah, which supports the President, are in a power
 MG>> struggle over who has authority over what. In addition, the
 MG>> government has been unable to meet its full payroll, partially
 MG>> because much international aid was suspended after Hamas was elected.
 MG>> After this episode, Fatah supporters drew up a document which would,
 MG>> indirectly, recognize Israel in the hopes that this might free up the
 MG>> international funds. President Abbas called for a referendum on it,
 JB> and
 MG>> Hamas rejected it. Not just with words, but with bullets.

 MG>> So does anyone there want peace? Some do:
 MG>> About 1,000 Palestinians marched through Gaza City urging the rival
 MG>> factions to "stop the killing".

 MG>> The demonstration drew gunfire from armed men on nearby buildings
 MG>> killing at least one protester. It was not immediately clear who was
 MG>> responsible for the shooting. Thus endeth the peace rally...

 MG>> Meanwhile, up in Lebanon, the government is still struggling with
 MG>> Fatah militants in the Palestinian refugee population.

 MG>> Does anyone still support giving the Palestinians a state right now?

 MG>> Update 7/14/2007 08:22:00PM: Hamas now effectively controls the Gaza
 MG>> strip, while the President has dissolved the current government.

 MG>> Apparently, some still can blame the conflict on Israel. From James
 MG>> Taranto's "Best of the Web":
 MG>> [The Boston Globe:] The Hamas campaign to eradicate Fatah from Gaza
 MG>> is certainly not the sole cause of Gazans' misery. They long suffered
 MG>> from Israel's suffocating occupation, and then from Ariel Sharon's
 MG>> foolishly unilateral withdrawal in 2005, a move that allowed Hamas to
 MG>> bid for power with the misleading claim that its rockets and suicide
 MG>> bombings had driven Israeli soldiers and settlers out of Gaza.

 MG>> [Response by James Taranto:] According to the Globe, Israel is to
 MG>> blame both for its "occupation" and for having ended
it--the latter
 MG>> of which "allowed Hamas to bid for power." But
"the people of Gaza"
 MG>> are innocent victims. It somehow escapes the Globe's notice that
 MG>> Hamas came to power because Palestinians voted for it. The Globe
 MG>> denies that Palestinians are responsible for their own actions, and
 MG>> thereby dehumanizes them under a pretense of compassion.

 MG>> http://shieldofachilles.blogspot.com/2007/06/civil-war-raging-in-gaza
 MG>> .html

 JB> This is long overdue and not just for the Palestinians, but for many
 JB> Arab countries.  I saw Charles Krauthammer on Foxnews a few years back
 JB> talking about this and he predicted that there would be no peace with
 JB> Israel or the West until the Palestinians went through their own civil
 JB> war and decided what they stand for.  I suspect this is far from over.

The Arab Muslims have been killing each other from time immemorial, they're
not likely to stop it any time soon.

-- 
L'Chaim,
Mimi

mimigal(at)cox.net


"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children.
We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their
children.... We will only have peace with the Arabs
when they love their children more than they hate us."
- Golda Meir

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