Fatah Torches PA Parliament, Cabinet Offices
Fatah: “Our house!”
Hamas: “You won’t get what you’re after!”
Haniyeh: “Kus emek!”
Abbas: “I’ve got a referendum!”
Hamas: “There’s no fookin’ way in hell!”
Fatah: “Burnin’ down the house!”
AFP reports,
Palestinian factional rivalry erupted into unprecedented violence as followers of president Mahmud Abbas set fire to the parliament and West Bank cabinet offices while supporters of the Hamas government tried to storm a security compound in Gaza.
Militants loyal to Abbas’s Fatah faction set fire to the ground floor of the parliament building in Ramallah where the flames quickly leapt through the rest of the complex.
Gunmen from the same Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also torched the cabinet building in Ramallah after hundreds of security officers, staffed largely by Fatah followers, forced their way into the premises and opened fire.
Man, Palestinian statehood is gonna be soooooooo awesome.
Mobius, what evidence do you see that there will be a Palestinian state?
I never thought I’d hear David Byrne with an Arab accent. Hilarious!
Definitely time to give the Palestinians a state. I vote for Mississippi.
immediately following the withdrawl from the west bank, israel will work to impose statehood on the p.a.
you mean withdrawal from part of the west bank. a complete withdrawal is not on the table. Israel will work to impose statehood; do you think it can succeed?
To paraphrase a comment I heard this morning–it’s hard to have a two-state solution when only one state is setting the terms.
It’s even harder to have a two-state solution when one only one state wants a (peaceful, non-genocidal) solution at all, and the other “state” would rather conduct a terrorist war with the declared intention of destroying the other state (which it doesn’t even recognize).
Given that I’m not aware of the context of this post, I’m going to add a disclaimer asking for forgiveness if I misinterpret it. I can’t tell whether the last statement about Palestinian statehood is simply cynicism (acceptable) or an implication that Palestinians should not or cannot have a state (bad). I’ll leave that up to you to clear up.
In any case, it would be silly to look at the current Hamas-Fatah divide as one that is purely a result of internal tensions. To be certain, factional violence is now a traditional part of the Palestinian dynamic (also in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria…); and, in many cases, the lack of a coherent political institution that allows parties to exist and coexist is what drives them to arms and violence–combine this with an outside aggressor (their perspective), and you have a terrible medley. In this way, Palestinian statehood *is* the solution or, at the very least, a step in the right direction to resolving the problem of internal violence. Israel’s contribution to the tensions should not be overlooked–from the transfer of Israeli weapons to Abbas’ private militia, to the suffocation of the PA under Hamas, there has certainly been a traceable foreign role in destabilizing the situation. This is not to say that the Palestinian factions themselves are innocent–no, they are far from it. But they certainly are not the only ones playing the game.
I should also mention that I am not Jewish so as to avoid any identity issues. And sorry if I’m intruding, just wanted to share my thoughts.
Peace