Welcome To Hamastan (Update: Fatah Wants A Dunkirk)
Hamas has overrun a critical and strategic security center in Gaza today, bringing them closer to their goal of controlling the entire region. Mahmoud Abbas has finally ordered retaliatory strikes, but he may not have many to respond to the call, as Hamas has begun executing Fatah militants in front of their wives and children:
Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and killed them in the street.The capture of the Preventive Security headquarters was a major step forward in Hamas' attempts to complete its takeover of all of Gaza. Hamas later called on Fatah fighters to surrender the National Security compound within the hour.
The moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, for the first time in five days of fierce fighting, ordered his elite presidential guard to strike back. But his forces were crumbling fast under the onslaught by the better-armed and better-disciplined Islamic fighters.
Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot to death in the street outside Preventive Security. A witness, Jihad Abu Ayad, said the men were being killed in front of their wives and children.
Hamas certainly feels that it has the upper hand. They don't fear any retribution for these executions, and certainly have no qualms about killing their fellow Palestinians without any sort of due process or any thought of reconciliation. Hamas Radio announced that "the past era has ended and will not return ... The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived."
Still, the Palestinians have not taken responsibility for their own depravity. After decades of terrorism and mayhem, they still want to blame everyone else but themselves for their own misery. The AP quotes one Palestinian blaming the rest of the world for not interceding to stop the fighting. "The world is watching us dying and doing nothing to help," he complains. Isn't this the same people who demanded an end to "foreign" occupation? Isn't that what Ariel Sharon gave them? And look what they have done with the opportunity.
Abbas, meanwhile, seems to be moving in slow motion. He reportedly has started talking about ending the partnership with Hamas -- five days after his partners started killing his own people. Abbas has asked Israel to allow transfer of arms and materiel from the West Bank to Gaza in order to bolster Fatah security forces, but Israel knows that the weapons will fall into the hands of Hamas, and has refused. He finally gave orders for his men to go on the offensive, but the momentum has passed to Hamas and isn't likely to reverse itself.
Ban Ki-moon has gone to the Security Council to test the waters for an international peacekeeping force deployment to Gaza. It's not likely to get much traction, and for good reason. UN forces have a bad habit of running away from gunfire, and with radical Islamists like Hamas involved, they will get put to flight within days of their arrival. The only possible way to defeat Hamas on the ground is to conduct an all-out war on Gaza -- for which the UN has absolutely no stomach. For that strategy to work, it would take either Egypt or Israel to roll tanks and thousands of troops across Gaza and commit to an occupation.
If the UN wants to endorse that, then we can take their interventionist notions seriously. Until then, the Palestinians have to deal with the terror they have seen fit to visit upon themselves now, and the terrorism that they have seen fit to visit upon others for the last 40 years.
UPDATE: Via Power Line, the Telegraph captures the moment perfectly:
Among yesterday's dead was a 14-year-old boy and three women, all killed in a Hamas attack on a Fatah security officer's home."They're firing at us, firing RPGs, firing mortars. We're not Jews," the brother of Jamal Abu Jediyan, a Fatah commander, pleaded during a live telephone conversation with a Palestinian radio station.
Minutes later both men were dragged into the streets and riddled with bullets.
Do you think that irony finally occurred to Abu Jediyan's brother in the moment before the bullets ended his life? Neither do I. That's the final irony.
UPDATE II: Fatah wants Israel to execute a Dunkirk to allow Fatah fighters to escape Hamastan:
Meanwhile, hundreds of Fatah men asked Israel to help them flee the Gaza Strip through Gaza seaport, one of the last locations in the Strip still held by Fatah Thursday morning, for fear they would be executed by Hamas gunmen if they remained in Gaza.
The Israelis might decide to do it. They have begun to view Gaza as a "separate enemy state," according to the Jerusalem Post. This could make dealing with Gaza even easier than before. If Hamas completely controls Gaza, they can attack security installations with impunity, rather than to take care not to undermine Fatah. It also could simplify matters in the West Bank:
Now, Hamas's disregard for the PA constitution in carrying out a military coup could work in Israel's favor. With a clear Fatah majority in the PLO, Abbas could use the fighting as an opportunity to break the constitutional Gordian knot tying Palestinian hands and annul the Basic Law, thus centralizing power in the West Bank under his leadership.This new scenario would, in effect, create two separate political-territorial units alongside Israel - a Gaza Hamastan and a West Bank Fatah-land.
That would allow Israel to boost Abbas in the West Bank, releasing tax funds and alleviating the effects of the international boycott there. It could lead to a lessening of tension between the PA and Israel. It would also make the Gazans see what misery Hamas provides in contrast.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on June 14, 2007 6:37 AM | Comments (32) | TrackBacks (0)
Comments (32)
Posted by PapaBear | June 14, 2007 7:06 AM
While Fatah and Hamas are killing each other, they are too busy to attack Israel. And by participating in mass killing of fellow Palestinians, it's going to be hard to get much sympathy for them if the Israelis finally decide to put out the trash
Posted by AnonymousDrivel | June 14, 2007 7:44 AM
That civil war has to complete on its own. Intervention by any outsider, especially a U.S. financed U.N., will delay yet another round of civil unrest just as has happened repeatedly before. Do not provide money. Do not provide food. Do not provide medicine. Especially do not send arms. Do not send an emergency summit for peace team. Do not send Condi Rice. You may send Jimmy Carter, but deny his VISA for the return trip. Build the walls higher for the cage match and let the world turn. It's a failed "civilization" that needs to get the fighting out of its system or burn itself out utterly.
Tragic, yet wholly unavoidable had the pathology been addressed from within. As you so rightly put it, Ed, that final irony says it all.
Posted by AnonymousDrivel | June 14, 2007 7:48 AM
Oops. "Wholly avoidable", not "wholly unavoidable."
Posted by Chris | June 14, 2007 7:52 AM
Nothing like wartime to highlight a leader's competence. Abbas waits until his guys are on the run before he gives them the green light to fight back. He's moving more slowly than the French high command in 1940.
Posted by Clyde | June 14, 2007 7:53 AM
The Palestinian lack of initiative is why the Israelis always kick their butts when war rolls around. An American wouldn't even NEED orders to fight back when someone starts firing guns and rockets at him. Well, in today's overlawyered military, they probably WOULD need orders to fight back, more's the pity. I miss the good old days of General Patton, when it was all about using the enemy's guts to grease your tank treads...
Posted by Realist | June 14, 2007 7:53 AM
El Presidente must immediately act to save the pitiful inhabitants of Gaza and admit them to the United States. There are far too few representatives of the Religion of Peace here now. Bring in a few million more, we deserve them.
Viva la raza!
Viva la reconquista!
Viva El Presidente Jorge bin Jorge al-Bush!
Islam is a religion of peace!
Allahu akbar!
Posted by howard lohmuller | June 14, 2007 8:04 AM
It is a bad idea for Israel to do anything at this time in Gaza but stay neutral. Fatah and PLO will turn on Israel at the first opportunity. But Egypt might want to exercise its responsibility in Gaza by policing it and the same regarding Jordan in the West Bank. We should at least try to drag them toward what has always been their responsibilities to their Arab brethren.
Posted by TomB | June 14, 2007 8:07 AM
Who says that the West Bank is immune to Hamas? I am sure that after they are done in Gaza, they will try to expand the operations. Fatah became a flock of fat cats, apparently no match for the religious fanatics of Hamas, why not to finish them? All the war seem to be well planned and executed so far, with tunnel dug to plant a very large mine to simply blow up fortified security compound of Fatah..
Impotence of the world community and weakness and lack of resolution in Israel makes Iran more bold, so better rockets are on the way, I am sure. West Bank is also a much better launching pad for the rockets, with much larger part of Israel in range
In other words everything goes exactly according the plan…
Posted by rbj | June 14, 2007 8:38 AM
Let Hamas have Gaza -- then flatten it. I've got no sympathy for Fatah or the Palestinians -- they've too long supported terrorism. But once the cancerous Hamas is in control, it needs to be taken out.
And I'm sure even Egypt doesn't want Iranian back muslim extremists right on its doorstep.
Posted by CatoRenasci | June 14, 2007 8:39 AM
The Palestinians wanted the Israelis out and the Israelis left. Let the Palestinians sort it all out. Give them nothing. I would, however, cheerfully sell arms (for cash on the barrel head) to whomever has the money -- if only because that will expedite a solution.
Posted by Bob Smith | June 14, 2007 8:42 AM
Rather interesting how summary executions constitute an "era of justice". I though Islam was the Religion of Peace, so obviously that quote is a plant by the Zionist-controlled media.
Posted by jay | June 14, 2007 8:44 AM
Don't think for a minute that the World will get it right. It does not matter how bad things will get as a result of Hamas. It does not matter how many Arabs are killed by other Arabs.
It will all be seen as the fault of Israel and the US.
Very telling quote from the article "We are not Jews".
Posted by Cynic | June 14, 2007 8:49 AM
The last time the Israelis "Executed a Dunkirk", way back in 1970 when they permitted the PLO to escape from Jordan where the King was slaughtering them (Black September), and pass through Israel to lebanon, they made things far worse as Arafat and his thugs went on the rampage creating a civil war there and massive terrorist activities against Israel's northern border which only ended with the Israeli invasion in 1982 and an extended stay until 2000.
More fool the Israelis if they think that Fatah is any better.
Posted by Maverick Muse | June 14, 2007 9:03 AM
"We have always asked for international forces to come to the West Bank and Gaza," ABBAS confidant Saeb Erekat told Israel's Army Radio. But, he added, "Honestly, on the personal level, I believe that if we don't help ourselves as Palestinians, nobody can."
So Hamas is systematically wiping out Fatah; Presidential, Intelligence Service and National Security Compounds.
Remember, Abbas resigned as Prime Minister of the Fatah PA in 2003 during odds within his own divided alliance. Abbas plays a diplomat, not a Commander in Chief. Abbas' truce with Israel fed his opposition, Hamas, the single minded zealots of destruction: destroy Fatah, destroy Israel, destroy Palestine, destroy the world.
It sounds like Sharia goes marching on. While executing everyone and anyone in the way, Hamas chills the world with the following statement. "We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return, " Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas' militia, told Hamas radio. "The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived."
Talk about a training ground for terrorists, Hamas provides that hell on earth. Dumbfounding, terrorists claim to be doing evil for the good of the people. Why bother lying? Who is fooled with the "I'm killing you for your own good" rant? Chilling, the era of "justice" and Islamic rule has arrived like boils on the anus.
BTW, from WIKIPEDIA on Palestine's Population: "There has never been an accurate official census in Palestine since the roots of the recent aggression. Hadawi states that at the end of 1918 (WW1), there were 700,000 people living in Palestine. These were divided into 574,000 Muslims, 70,000 Christians and 56,000 Jews. Almost all the Palestinian Christians are Arabs and most of the Jews as well (up to around 1900 AD)." Sami Hadawi: Bitter Harvest, New World Press, 1967
---most of the 19th Century Palestinian Jews were Arabs?
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| June 14, 2007 9:15 AM
Only defeated populations may be easily reshaped from the outside. The Palestinians seem to have nearly defeated themselves. Soon, soon.
Posted by section9 | June 14, 2007 9:34 AM
This is all table setting before the Summer War.
The Iranians needed a southern artillery base to range in southern Israel to provide a deterrent against any action against them. They believe Hamastan gives them that. I happen to believe they are wrong, as the existence of Hamastan gives Israel a free hand to level Gaza when they start firing Kassams and Katyushas at southern Israel.
The Syrian presence in Gaza also gives the Israelis the pretext they need for going after the Syrian/Iranian axis in the West. Whether the Israelis use this opportunity given to them depends on whether Olmert has learned his lesson.
Now the Iranian Revolutionary Guards will feel nice and cocky. As will the beleaguered Boy President. They've won a couple of preliminary bouts and believe they have the Americans and the Jooooos on the run.
Time for them to overreach.
Posted by Lightwave | June 14, 2007 9:56 AM
Interesting.
The cynic in me still agrees with my assessment of the situation from yesterday: in hindsight, Israeli disengagement from Gaza simply gave the Palestinians enough rope to hang themselves and to allow something like this to happen.
The result: Israel gets the green light to turn Gaza into a parking lot along with the Hamas leadership. The weakened Fatah huddles in the West Bank with a grateful Abbas as a pliable, humbled PA leader more than willing to do whatever Israel wants.
Maybe the disengagement policy wasn't such a stupid idea after all.
Posted by Sabba Hillel | June 14, 2007 10:21 AM
In Hebrew, the word Chamas can be found in the Bible (Noach - Genesis 2:11)
vatimalei haaretz chamas
And the land was filled with violent robbery
Posted by patrick neid | June 14, 2007 12:01 PM
i have no idea where it all leads or ends but i trust the process. civil wars are the necessary transit that all societies pass through on the way to a semblance of civility. we should, although it will look heartless, stand aside and let them have at it.
while we live in the 21st century we always forget that the many areas of the world stretch back, in real time, to at least the 18th century and in some extreme cases, ie radical islam/taliban, to the 8th. if you believe what i have said you must then accept the thinking that goes along with the century a particular country is passing through.
it wasn't a short 150 years ago that we killed 600,000 of our own and wounded millions more in what clearly was/is a defining moment in our history. in today's number that would be six million dead.
the middle east, if we are lucky, is approaching their "french revolution" stage. don't forget that comes with a Robespierre, the "reign of terror" and the guillotine. the amount of heads rolling then make the terrorists look like pikers. anyway its all been romanticized now. it certainly wasn't at the time.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Revolution
Posted by johnnymozart | June 14, 2007 12:07 PM
We're not Jews
And we're supposed to feel sorry for people who use that statement as an appeal not to be murdered.
Posted by bayam | June 14, 2007 12:33 PM
All Palestinians are scum of the earth who deserve too die, huh? If anyone made similar remarks about Jews, all hell would break loose on this board. I suspect a double standard.
I'm not pro-Palestinian, but as someone who lives in Silicon Valley and has many friends from India and other parts of the world, I just tend not to see foreigners in such a bi-polar way. Hamas is undoubtedly evil but it's not accurate to portray all Palestinians that way.
This situation probably would not have occurred in George Bush had not demanded that Fatah hold 'democratic' elections. Then again, the outcome doesn't matter when the right wing nuts have a chance to force their ideal of 'democracy' on another country. If Iran and Syria become more powerful and benefit from the consequences, so what?
Posted by patrick neid | June 14, 2007 12:36 PM
the village idiot has shown up!
Posted by bayam | June 14, 2007 12:42 PM
More name calling, how impressive. Good job on those democratic elections, Patrick. The chicken hawks are back.
Posted by runawayyyy | June 14, 2007 12:55 PM
bayam, your short sightedness would be silly if it wasn't so tragic....this situation would have occured no matter who was in charge of the plo as their core belief is to behave just as they are now.
What the election did was to allow the palestinian people to make their own choices....they are adults, not the hapless helpless little children you envision....choices have consequences, and the palestinian people are now reaping the benefits of their own choices.
For you to assume that they are not responsible for their own behavior, for you to assume it's all bush's fault (TM), when both israel and america have completely disengaged from the process is laughable....you are useless to the discussion. Dismissed.
Posted by bayam | June 14, 2007 1:06 PM
completely disengaged from the process is laughable....you are useless to the discussion.
Just because you're part of an echo chamber doesn't mean that you're right.
Based on your thinking, the West had no right to oppose Hitler in his own country, since the Nazis did actually win German elections.
Palestine is a nation of adult refugees, it's an incredibly f-up place. The idea that you can force democratic elections and then blame the voters for any negative consequences is incredibly naive.
Believe it or not, the outcome of this war won't be the death of all the extremists who "kill themselves off" as some posters seem to believe. It will only create more extremists, more terrorists, and more people who want to kill Americans. It will further radicalize the entire region. It's NOT good for us.
Palestine is a land of refugees and refugee camps. That's a problem that makes normalcy difficult to achieve.
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/palestine/ch10.pdf
Posted by patrick neid | June 14, 2007 1:28 PM
bayam,
please don't feel bad. the "village idiot" like the "court jester" were and continue to be valuable participants in society. you provide a valuable service akin to a divining rod.
really keep up the good work. as to your regrets about elections i'll leave you with this:
patrick neid Says:
January 28th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Hamas wins!
Despite all the chin pulling and hand wringing I think this is the best thing that could happen in regards to the peace process in the Middle East. This election brings complete clarity to the events on the ground. The final steps will be the completion of the wall and the granting of statehood–whether they want it or not–to Palestine. Once that happens the constraints of statehood will kick in. All manner of conditions will then limit the behavior of Hamas. First and foremost almost all of their funding will basically stop. Whereas now the common excuse for supporting the PLO bloodlust was, its for “the oppressed”. With statehood their behavior will have to meet certain standards not unlike Israel’s being limited in it’s treatment toward the terrorists, Arafat, etc. Israel will now be dealing with a recognized country. This will be a whole lot easier than with a “movement” and brings with it a lot more options.
The UN, dragging it’s knuckles, will come to see Hamas, Iran, Syria et al as the thugocracies they have always been. There will be no gray areas to hide in. The world is finally hitting bottom! We should celebrate……
Posted by sanssoucy | June 14, 2007 2:30 PM
I can't imagine a more delightful spectacle than these two mobs of loathsome murder-cultists going at each other hammer and tongs. Here's hoping their civil war lasts a decade and leaves no two sticks still nailed together in that rathole they've built for themselves.
The only thing that's needed for full enjoyment of this is a fountain drink and the large, buttered popcorn.
SS
Posted by Bennett | June 14, 2007 5:53 PM
Fatah and the rest of the Palestinians being slaughtered by their brethren are now tragically learning what the rest of us have known for decades. The Palestinian cause championed by so many around the world for so long has never been about the Palestinians, not really. It has always been more about the defeat of Israel and the diminution of US power in the region than it has ever been about securing a meaningful future for the Palestinians.
So yes, it must be a horrific realization, that no one is going to rescue you, that nobody really cares enough to do anything as you slaughter each other in the streets. Something about staring into the abyss comes to mind.
Posted by Deb | June 14, 2007 5:56 PM
bayam says:
"Based on your thinking, the West had no right to oppose Hitler in his own country, since the Nazis did actually win German elections."
what??? we didn't oppose hitler in his own country, we fought him across Europe.
(sorry, I don't follow your point anyway; seems like you're just throwing s**t out there and hoping something sticks!)
yes, it's a f****d up place. and by the way, the region's Arabs could have taken in the Palestinian refugees long ago. (as did Israel for the many thousands of Jews who were evicted from Arab lands). yes, there will be awful deaths and destruction, in the short term. but yes, lancing this boil will be better in the long term... people do tire of warring and death...
Posted by AnonymousDrivel | June 14, 2007 7:32 PM
RE: bayam (June 14, 2007 1:06 PM)
If anyone made similar remarks about Jews [scum of the earth deserving of death], all hell would break loose on this board.
Well if the Jews' rai·son d'être was to interminably incite conflict by crossing national barriers, to kill Arabs, homicide bomb civilians, and then turn on each other in a fratricidal bloodbath during their ceasefires, you'd have a point. Alas, you don't.
...It [the war] will only create more extremists, more terrorists, and more people who want to kill Americans. It will further radicalize the entire region. It's NOT good for us...
So if the U.S./U.N. disengages to let them rule themselves, more terrorists result. If the U.S./U.N. engages to impose "hegemony" as so many have charged, particularly liberals and Islamists, more terrorists result.
Seems to me that in some people's calculus, it doesn't matter what tactic is tried. The ultimate result is that outsiders, namely the U.S., are at fault. Yet the common denominator is that Palestinians will continue killing... their neighbors if necessary, themselves when their neighbors aren't convenient targets.
Do you envision a scenario where the Palestinians sue for real peace, short of the exanguination of Jewish blood, that lasts beyond even ethnic cleansing of Israel?
This civil war remains a clarifying historical moment that will expedite peace should we allow it to reach completion. There's no sense in sacrificing external actors for their conflict resolution. The world has paid enough.
Posted by johnnymozart | June 15, 2007 12:23 PM
Based on your thinking, the West had no right to oppose Hitler in his own country, since the Nazis did actually win German elections.
Nonsense. Completely wrong analogy. You are conflating two unrelated ideas. What you are trying to say is that based on this thinking, the West had no obligation to save the Germans from their own bad choices. People always seem to think that if "Hitler had been taken out" that WWII never would have happened. Maybe. But Hitler's assassination would not have disabused a large portion of the German population that they should rule the world, so it would not have affected that mentality, just as his assassination during the war would not have ended it. The same is true here. Palestinians elected Hamas. Palestinians will be responsible for the result, no matter how much you would like to blame the US for this. How we deal with Iran is a completely separate issue; one which is being addressed most inadequately, I agree. But IT IS iRAN'S ACTIONS, NOT THE US'S INACTION, THAT IS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND A CONFLICT WITH IRAN. That isn't going to change simply because they develop more influence closer to Israel.
Posted by MegaTroopX | June 15, 2007 3:52 PM
The weakened Fatah huddles in the West Bank with a grateful Abbas as a pliable, humbled PA leader more than willing to do whatever Israel wants.
Sorry Lightwave, but "gratitude" and "Muslim Leader" have never met.
The Fatah-stineans will declare victory and immediately start trying to murder Jews again.
The proper Israeli response to pleas for help should be: "I see your mouth moving, but all I hear is *insert chimp noises*."
Golda Meir said it best, after all.