Looks like Hamas and Fatah can’t recover from their January surprise. The surprise that caught both the parties in the conflict continues to make life harder for its citizens. At least 18 Palestinians, including two children, were killed in heavy factional fighting across the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, leaving a truce reached this week in ashes.
And you know how the politicians try to extract from the situations, consider this comment by President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader-
“I call on all parties in Gaza to stop these actions that harm the Palestinian people.”
As if, he really wants to see peace. Fatah’s resentment at losing, the indignation of supporters of Hamas that their victory was being questioned is the major reason for all this violence. Since the elections in January, supporters of both the political rivals are chasing each other like the wild horde of Huns.
A large credit of it should go to the financial siege imposed by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, the group of Middle East peace intermediaries known as the Quartet, in the hope of forcing Hamas, to recognize Israel. The premise of the siege strategy appears to be that by increasing Palestinian misery, domestic pressure will mount on Hamas to submit or quit.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia invited them to Mecca earlier this week to continue those talks in hopes of ending the factional fighting. However, it is still not clear whether it would even be possible to hold them, given the towering tensions. Nevertheless, one thing’s clear, militia and Palestinian security forces cannot go together. I think it is the right time for Israel to do business with Hamas. It is possible that Hamas would deliver a Palestinian state that Fatah could not do in five decades.
Via: washingtonpost
