U.S. intervenes in Palestinian civil conflict

[Severian]

Reuters (http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-01-05T152357Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-282387-1.xml&archived=False)


The Bush administration will provide $86 million to help security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expanding U.S. involvement in his struggle with Hamas, according to documents seen on Friday.

Fighting between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas, the ruling Islamist group, has surged since talks on forming a unity government collapsed and Abbas called for early parliamentary and presidential elections.

The U.S. money will be used to "assist the Palestinian Authority presidency in fulfilling PA commitments under the road map (peace plan) to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and establish law and order in the West Bank and Gaza", according to a U.S. government document.

It said Lieutenant-General Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator between Israel and the Palestinians, would implement the programme "to strengthen and reform elements of the Palestinian security sector controlled by the PA presidency".
....
Clashes between armed units loyal to Hamas and Fatah have increased in recent days. Six people were killed in factional fighting on Thursday alone.

The money for the presidential guard was initially earmarked for U.S. aid programmes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, but those programmes were "cancelled or suspended after Hamas took power earlier this year", the U.S. document said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this is more than the total of all previous U.S. aid given directly to the Palestinian Authority.

Other new developments: Israeli and U.S. politicians are proposing the establishment of a Palestinian mini-state with supposedly temporary borders inside the Israeli apartheid wall - which is rejected by Palestinians, even Abbas. And the Israeli deputy prime minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has proposed the deployment of 30,000 UN troops to Gaza. In the past, Israel - and especially right-wingers like Lieberman - has rejected any kind of international force, and threatened retaliation for any declaration of Palestinian independence. The whole "two-state" idea is gradually reversing its content, from a demand against Israeli occupation to a proposal for a Bantustan. News article (http://24hour.startribune.com/24hour/world/story/3472861p-12701778c.html)

Discussion?

[Phalanx]

It mirrors the Somali conflict. Once the secular interim government was on the run, the US frantically poured money and bombs into Somalia. Of course, the war was by proxy, an Ethiopian invasion. The US could simply use Israel re-invade Gaza to destroy Hamas.

[Vargha Poralli]

Not surprising. Imperialists had never hesitated to use this divide and rule policy.


This also shows the Bankruptcy of both HAMAS and FATAH. Instead of fighting the enemy they are fighting over who should defeat their enemy. The real losers in this case are the Palestinian people.

[Janus]

With the recent infighting between Fatah and Hamas, the former is gonna need all the help it's going to get though they aren't allowed to buy weapons with the aid. However, with the possibility of a civil war and Hamas gaining the upper hand, I think that the US will strengthen their efforts to back Abbas in his power struggle.

[Omri Evron]

This civil war between Hamas and Fatah is disastarous to the Palestinian people and the struggle for independence. Despite many efforts of reconceliation, tempers are high after Hamas militants murdered in cold blood Palestinian kids and ciilians in attacks against Fatah officials and their families. Honestly, it seems like both groups care more than anything else to gain power for themselfs. This has also been a blow to the non-violent struggle against the Apartheid Wall.
There has also been for several months strikes and workers protests against the Hamas right-wing government, but in most cases they were either ignored or violently oppressed.
And afcourse, as long as the Palestinian leadership is busy killing eachother, the Israeli government beraly has to make excuses for maintainig the occupation, even though already most Israelies support the concept of a two-state solution. The rise of the Hamas in last years elections has allowed the Israeli government that was elected just a few weeks later to deepen the oppression of the Palestinian people with beraly any criticizm. While this government has finaly declared that it recognizes the right of the Palestinians to independence, in reality, every day more settlements are being built, more lands are being taken, and the economic blockade has a disastorous affect on the Palestinian working class. I'm affraid that as long as the fighting goes on, and the Hamas leadership refuses to listen to the political demands of the majority of the Palestinian people (that want to impliment an agreement along the lines of Maruan Barguty), the situation in the Occupied Territories will only get worse, ang the goal of independence will slip farther away. :(