Re: [Marxism] A SETBACK FOR THE BUSH DOCTRINE IN GAZA

[Marvin Gandall <marvgandall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Luko Willms wrote:

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:53:23 -0400, Fred Feldman wrote:

> But I think the Hamas decision to go beyond crushing Dahlan to
> establishing, to all intents and purposes, a Hamas regime
> across all of Gaza is not positive, and I do not support it.

  I'n not sure if they really want to do it.

  Both Haniye and Mashal, the Hamas president in Syrian exile, affirmed
that they still see Mahmoud Abbas as their elected president and that
they want this united front.
===============================
[MG] I'd be very surprised if Hamas' aim is to run Gaza on its own for the
reasons I mentioned at the start of this thread: the territory, already a
jail, would be further isolated and punished and there is no reason why
Hamas would want to run the risk of being somehow held responsible and
abandoned by its followers.

That's why Hamas is blaming Dahlan and "renegade" elements within Fatah.
It's a convenient political fiction which allows it to continue calling for
the united front and the unity government. It's the clearest sign that
establishing a Hamas regime in Gaza is far from its intention.

The problem for Hamas is that the US and Israel don't want the united front
or any role at all for the party in the Palestinian governing authority or
in the mainstream of Palestinian political life. As we know, they've been
putting intense pressure on Abbas ever since Hamas' election victory 18
months ago to crack down on it. Poor Abbas has now seized on the Gaza
fighting as a pretext to finally expel Hamas from the government. Prodded by
his American and Israeli patrons, he may have even provoked it for that
purpose. Now he will be expecting in return a resumption of international
aid, including military aid to the Fatah security forces, and some
relaxation of the occupation.

Whether he gets it will depend on the Israelis who are still the masters of
the situation, even though traumatized and internally divided by the Lebanon
war and the growing strength of Iran.

The Israelis would like to help Abbas by allowing greater freedom of
movement within the West Bank and by facilitating job creation through trade
and aid. Ultimately, they'd even like to grant the Palestinians some form of
truncated statehood, both to rid themselves of the political and economic
cost of the occupation and to forestall the potentially more explosive
development of a movement - by Palestinians frustrated at the failed
attempts for a two-state solution - for an end to the system of informal
apartheid and for the establishment of a non-denominational unitary state
encompassing Israel and the territories.

But Israel faces a real contradiction: whether it still able to offer what
it did at Taba, assuming the Palestinians under Abbas would now take that
deal and Hamas is neutralized (a big if), or whether its further settlement
of the West Bank in the intervening period has taken even that measure of
so-called statehood off the table, and it is trapped in a situation of its
own making.



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