Re: [Marxism] Hamas Moves Close to Full Control of Gaza

[Rod Holt <rholt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Very briefly:
    Abbas inherited the Arafat pork machine which supported several 
hundred thousand Palestinians via the PA police and armed forces and 
through his Old Guard-controlled monopolies (gas, concrete, 
construction, etc.). Hamas ran for office on a "Stop Corruption!" 
program and won. With the obvious intent of starving out Hamas, the US,  
Israel and the rest exclaim that they can't support "terrorists" and cut 
off all support to Palestine except for what they can route directly to 
Abbas, who, by violating the intent of the law, manages to wield power 
despite being just a figure head president. Hamas people figure that the 
cut-off is working only because Abbas collaborates and, were there a 
solid Palestinian people backing Hamas, there would be a satisfactory 
compromise quickly enough. So Hamas can see only the pathway of bringing 
the old guard under control, which means shooting some crooks. 
Unfortunately, the crooks have a large mercenary army.

The vast majority of Palestinian are practicing secularists, but Hamas 
has a long record of being clean as a whistle and that gave them the 
elections. They're being "Islamists" is almost irrelevant. See the 
*Journal of Palestinian Studies* "a New 'Hamas' Through Its New 
Documents" by Khaled Hroub (Summer, 2006). Also, the Journal published 
an excellent analysis of the elections showing carefully who voted for 
whom: "Hamas's Rise as Charted in the Polls: 1994-2005" by Jamid Hilal 
(Spring 2006).

It is a real mistake to see the conflict as "Islamist v Whatever (Fill 
in the blank)."
       --rod

Les Schaffer wrote:

>Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx wrote:
>  
>
>>_Hamas  Moves Close to Full Control of Gaza 
>>    
>>
>
>can someone give me a quick rundown on what are the points of conflict
>between Hamas and Fatah? what's at stake in this fighting? Is it a
>straight Hamas vs "agents of US/Israel", or are there other internal
>issues involved?
>
>Les
>
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