The Israeli Zionist government
briefly opened the Rafah crossing with Egypt,
which it has shut down 50% of the year
to average residents here, to allow US-funded,
Jordanian-trained, Fatah reinforcements
(450 members of the elite Badr Brigade) inside
Ismail Hanieh, leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)
"The US is not only not interested
in dealing with Hamas, it is working
to ensure its failure" -
a policy promoted and openly acknowledged by
the American deputy national
security adviser Elliott Abrams
It is in Fatah's interests to accept US assistance since they want to gain ascendancy over Hamas. What we can question is whether this is a good strategy by the US?Fanning the Flames in Gaza
Have America's attempts to aim/aid military factions in the past been a good idea? (the words 'Contra' and 'Taliban' spring to mind! or even previous Israeli funding to Hamas).
I suspect there are better methods of international involvement. And this kind of thing makes me wonder whether the US and others are really interested in seeing an ending in the fighting?
Is too much to ask that the Yanks keep their BLOODY noses out of everything?
Almost every time, when two parties line up against each other violently anywhere in the world, the US is never far behind to arm one side. WHY?
US money and support may help Fatah for a while in the battle - but it will reduce Fatah's reputation among the rest of Palestinians who until now still side with them.
US and Israeli help for Fatah tells the Palestinians: Fatah has become a traitor. First, Fatah government poisoned itself by corruption, and now US support will poison it to death.
Fatah could only win this fight if it could establish a cruel dictatorship over the Palestinians.
Is this the aim of Western support for Fatah? Or does the West aim at mutual self-elimination of both sides, at political suicide of the Palestinians, to discourage the Palestinian people thus making them ready to surrender?
Fatah supporters have to decide what is more important for them: the Palestinian cause - or Fatah.
Their corrupt behaviour under Arafat's rule and after reveals to us that the Palestinian cause is not what drives most of them. It has become an organisation of traitors.
No ever seems quite sure how or why the spates of violence begin in Gaza, but a few days on, it becomes irrelevant anyway.
Firefights including heavy arms and mortors continue to rage all around Gaza city, all while Israeli gunships pounded east and north of the city, which has been transformed to a ghost town.
Even the most foolhardy opted to stay indoors, and all but a lone convenience store closed.
Masked Fatah and Hamas gunmen patrolled every street corner, and took positions on every major high-rise tower, keeping residents, schoolchildren, and university students penned indoors as battles swirled around them.
Fatah called for a general strike, and has taken to shooting into the air to scare people off the streets, stopping cars at self-imposed checkpoints, and detaining men with beards, in response to what they say was a deadly Hamas ambush of the presidential guard.
(Hamas has denied involvement saying their military forces were there re-enforcing their defenses on the border for fear of a possible Israeli attack, and hospital sources say the shrapnel is Israeli, not Palestinian, in origin).
Israel has claimed responsiblity for the death of at least two of the Fatah guards. But by that point, it didn't matter anymore.
The revenge machine was already in high-gear. In some locations, angry Palestinians reportedly pelted rocks at jeeps belonging to the presidential guard.
Many here are referring to the on-again-off-again battles as a new "Nakba", one that has coincided with the day Palestinians mark as their original "catastrophe"-when the state of Israel was declared on 78% of historic Palestine.
Tuesday marked the 59th anniversary. "Our Nakba has become two Nakbas," young protestors chanted in unison on the city streets this morning.
Palestinians are not pleased about the ever-worsening violence which is threatening to unravel the recently negotiated unity government, but there is little they can do about it besides watching things unfold to their inescapably grim conclusion, they say.
But the news that really upset many here was word of the Israeli government briefly opening the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which it has shut down 50% of the year to average residents here, to allow US-funded, Jordanian-trained, Fatah reinforcements (450 members of the elite Badr Brigade) inside.
The fact is, Gaza is not combusting spontaneously.
To quote Alistair Crooke, "the US is not only not interested in dealing with Hamas, it is working to ensure its failure" - a policy promoted and openly acknowledged by the American deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams.
In his meetings with a group of Palestinian businessmen last January, Abrams said the US had to support Fatah with guns, ammunition and training, so that they could fight Hamas for control of the Palestinian government.
And just over a week ago, a 16-page secret American document was leaked to a Jordanian newspaper outlining an action plan for undermining and replacing the Palestinian national-unity government.
The document outlines steps for building up Abbas and his security forces, leading to the dissolution of the parliament, a strengthening of US allies in Fatah in the lead-up to new elections.
Events have unfolded according to plan, with not so much as a peep or word of protest from the major world governments.
It has become a city decaying, debilitated, and on the verge of implosion; its people exposed to the most violent form of subjugation, collectively sentenced to a life in prison by global power colluding to unwind the very fabric of their society, punishing them where no crime existed.
The US has allocated as much as $84 million to this end, directly funding president Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan and their security forces, which are often one and the same as the Fatah militias engaged in bitter battles with Hamas and even firing missiles at Israel.
That doesn't change the bitter resentment in the streets over what has unfolded, and the utter cynicism associated with it.
"I'm just saying, what are they fighting over - the trash burning in the streets?" remarked one shopkeeper, in reference to the piles of accumulated trash gathering as a result of a week-long municipality protest.
"We all know what's going to happen next," he continued.
"Government officials will convene with the military commanders, and ask them to show restraint. The gunmen will withdraw from the streets. And for a few more weeks, things will be calm again.
"We're in a maelstrom and I can't really see a way out. Gaza is burning. And the world is watching." Laila El-Haddad @ CIF