Ha’aretz reports that a former top Shin Bet official calls for the release of Barghouti from jail while the Fatah Central Commitee has decided to cut off all contacts with Hamas; the Zionists decide to use their nuclear weapons – no, not the actual nukes, but their political equivalent: “Mr Oi Vey” aka Elie Wiesel and his ability to scream “Holocaust” every time the “Jewish state” is in political trouble. Israeli pundits are calling for a declaration of war on Lebanon. In the meanwhile, Israeli tanks are entering Gaza to “protect the crossing” into Egypt while DEBKAfile “reports” that Katsyusha rockets are being shipped into Gaza and implies that Syria sides with Hamas.
Olmert is telling American Jewish organizations that he will never negotiate with Hamas, and is seeking UN and EU support to “isolate Hamas”.
(Being the nice guy that he is, Olmert also takes the time for a photo op in the Big Apple)
Finally, an editorial of the LA Times declare that the emergence of “Hamastan” between Israel and Egypt is an unqualified disaster for the world“. One can only logically conclude that any and all measures taken to protect the world from this “unqualified disaster” are, well, kosher, I suppose.
(How exactly the ousting of Fatah by Hamas in Gaza is an “unqualified disaster for the world” is anyone’s guess)
Sure looks to me like we are about to see yet another grandiose “defensive action” by Israel with the full support of the “international community” in defense of “human rights, democracy, progress and humanity”…
I don’t trust Hamas’ ability to put up a good defense against the invasion of Gaza. I might be mistaken here, but I still have no reasons to believe that Hamas forces have received adequate training in urban warfare in what will be a very, very difficult environment. Also – if the Israelis act fast enough there will not have been enough time to prepare Gaza for the invasion. Unlike Grozny which had been built with extremely solid Soviet-era buildings and unlike Lebanon where Hezbollah had made extensive defensive preparations, Gaza is, as far as I know, very poorly buit and probably has little or no underground fortifications.
The scariest thing is that, unlike what happened in Fallujah, the Hamas fighters in Gaza do not have the option to withdraw as Gaza is totally surrounded by land, air and sea.
The best option for the Hamas fighters is thus to blend as much as possible among the rest of the population. Alas, that likely choice will certainaly result in a bloodbath once the Israelis and, even worse, the Fatah goons come in (I am rather confident that the terror the latter will heap on the Gaza residents in revenge for the recent humiliation of Fatah would have made any SS Totenkopfverbande proud).
All this reminds me of the leadup to the massacres of Sabra and Shatila.
UPDATE:
After meeting with Olmert, Bush has declared that Hamas “made the choice of violence”.
In the meantime, Netanyahu is leaving for the USA to convince the US leaders to “increase the pressure on Iran.”
By now I would say that all the “indicators and warnings” are clearly pointing towards an invasion of Gaza. This is insane, but it appears that the Imperial High Command has made the choice of trying to crash Hamas by force.
Elie Wiesel is the “intellectual” equivalent of Ariel Sharon. An unsubtle bully.
absolutely! I could not agree more.
About crushing Hamas, I don’t know. After reading two pieces of news tonight, the picture has become even more confusing. Indeed, how to reconcile what appeared to have been a deliberate move by Fatah* to bring about the separation of Gaza and the West Bank with what Dahlan is saying, that is that the West Bank is being overrun by Hamas?
As well, I have come across two commentaries that warn Israel about its plan to crush Hamas for fear of leaving the door open to Al-Qaeda. Will Israel heed such a warning?
[* Then again, that article could just be an attempt at damage control.]
Furgaia – thank you very much for these extremely interesting links. I had read yesterday about Dahlan and his warning but I dissmissed that as the talk of a man made bitter by his downfall. The idea of Al-Qaeda replacing Hamas is absolutely fascinating, I have not given that a thought yet. My first gut reaction is that Hamas was born from repression, whereas Al-Qaeda is born of outrage. But let me think about all this and come back to you later today or tomorrow (I need to attend to some other stuff now). Thank you again for your most interesting comment and please keep posting here: your inputs are truly most interesting!
I have had some time to think about it, I even tried to get a response from another blog, and I have no clear sense of what a post-Hamas Palestine would look like, nor am I convinced that Hamas is “out” yet.
Hamas is home grown, Al-Qaeda is not. That is, IMHO, the main reason why my gut feeling is that Al-Qaeda will not gain a foothold in Palestine.
I could also mention a deep dislike of most of the Palestinians for the Saudi whom they consider as rather crude and primitive, at least in comparison to the Palestinians (I tend to agree with them here).
My guess is if Hamas is truly crushed, another 100% Palestinian movement will take its place.
My 2cts., no more.
Thanks!