Fatah vs. Hamas

[randy_byers]

Tony Karon, in his blog Rootless Cosmopolitan, continues to be the best commentator on Palestine and Israel that I've stumbled upon. His "The 8 Fallacies of Bush's Abbastan Plan" once again covers issues that I don't see talked about much elsewhere, particularly the role played by Fatah warlord Mohammed Dahlan, the role of Iran-Contra figure Elliott Abrams, and how Washington's support of Fatah is only making Hamas stronger. On the other hand, if the neocon plan really is to sow chaos in the Middle East in the hopes that something more stable will emerge, they've certainly done a great job of that first phase:

"The Oslo process was in trouble when Bush came into office in 2001, but it might have been saved had the Administration heeded the voices warning of the consequences of its malign neglect. But what Bush has allowed, and even encouraged on his watch has been the effective demolition of the Palestinian Authority’s institutions. He has left both Israel and the Arab world in far greater danger than was even conceivable when he took office, starting a fire that could burn for decades. With only another 18 months ago, it seems that in the West Bank and Gaza, he and his crew are determined to pour kerosene on the flames."

However, I get the feeling from other posts on the blog that Karon doesn't think the two-state solution has any chance of working anyway.

Comments

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Even in the immediate post-Iraq war phase, it would have been difficult to predict the strangely wrong headed Middle East policy the Bush regime has twisted itself towards. It might take decades to undo the damage wrought.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Even as the political tide seems to have turned against him, I have for the first time begun to wonder whether he has planted the seeds of my country's destruction. I really didn't think it was possible, but now I'm not so sure. (There is an ongoing joke/analysis that Bush isn't the worst president we've ever had, because Buchanan actually enabled a civil war that nearly destroyed the country. In order to be worse, Bush would actually have to destroy the country ... )