Takeover by Hamas Illustrates Failure of Bush's Mideast Vision

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

Takeover by Hamas Illustrates Failure of Bush's Mideast Vision

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 15, 2007; Page A18

Five years ago this month, President Bush stood in the Rose Garden and laid out a vision for the Middle East that included Israel and a state called Palestine living together in peace. "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror," the president declared.

The takeover this week of the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group dedicated to the elimination of Israel demonstrates how much that vision has failed to materialize, in part because of actions taken by the administration. The United States championed Israel's departure from the Gaza Strip as a first step toward peace and then pressed both Israelis and Palestinians to schedule legislative elections, which Hamas unexpectedly won. Now Hamas is the unchallenged power in Gaza.

After his reelection in 2004, Bush said he would use his "political capital" to help create a Palestinian state by the end of his second term. In his final 18 months as president, he faces the prospect of a shattered Palestinian Authority, a radical Islamic state on Israel's border and increasingly dwindling options to turn the tide against Hamas and create a functioning Palestinian state.

"The two-state vision is dead. It really is," said Edward G. Abington Jr., a former State Department official who was once an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061402098.html?hpid=topnews

[opihimoimoi]

1. Instead of LEADERSHIP....Bush got LOSERSHIP...he ain't got crap to speak of...

He has no Wit, no Wisdom, No Knowledge, Cannot speak properly, Canardly tell a joke, Mostly bar room antics, and he don't know History as any President should.

He is at Whale Shit Level...

[Turbineguy]

2. In all fairness

nobody else has succeeded there either. But whoever does will need the help of the Palestinians to do so.

[sutz12]

6. "In all fairness" at least others tried...nt

[tabasco]

9. Jimmy Carter got a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel

that is still being honored to this day.

[rodeodance]

3. "The less we try to intervene and shape Palestinian politics, the better off we will be,"

Referring to Abbas, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters yesterday that "we fully support him in his decision to try and end this crisis for the Palestinian people and to give them an opportunity to return to peace and a better future."

But analysts said yesterday that this strategy of dividing the moderates from the extremists -- which was the core of Bush's 2002 speech -- proved ineffective and may have led to the dilemma facing the administration.

"The less we try to intervene and shape Palestinian politics, the better off we will be," said Robert Malley, an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the International Crisis Group. "Almost every decision the United States has made to interfere with Palestinian politics has boomeranged."

[bemildred]

4. Fat chance. Giant egos are at stake here, face has been lost. nt

[Javaman]

5. this is the results of a failed business man as prez*

when in every situation he* has someone else save his* bacon, this time, it's all him* and this is result.

hard work requires doing the work yourself* and not hoping someone will come along and bail your* ass out.

he* is a pathetic excuse for a human being*.

[ohio2007]

7. Brilliant diplomacy to defeat one group by arming the other

group with $60 MILLION in weapons.

HAMAS SEIZES U.S.-FINANCED WEAPONS, EQUIPMENT
GAZA CITY -- Hamas has captured thousands of assault rifles and scores of combat vehicles financed by the United States and supplied by Egypt and Jordan to the Palestinian Authority.

The Islamic movement acquired the weapons, ammunition and vehicles during Hamas's capture of security installations in the Gaza Strip aligned with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. For the most part, Fatah-aligned PA officers fled the Hamas assaults.

"I would say that they have most of the weapons and armored vehicles sent by Egypt and Jordan over the last year," a PA security officer said.

The officer said Hamas seized thousands of U.S.-origin M-16 and Soviet-origin AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles as well as military radios. He said other booty captured by Hamas included trucks, mortars and hand grenades.
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2007/june/06_15_1.html

Now Hamas can call Condi and Congress to thank them for the "aid package"



Congress gives permission for Abbas security funds
Apr 10, 2007
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3026369

Looks like a two state solution will need to morph into a three state solution
with Hamasastan in Gaza who want it all
and
West Bankastan to the less hostile Fatah who are going to receive western funding. But maybe this time, no military aid. Spare the bullets,give them butter.

[janx]

8. It already has...

for now. But you can bet there's more to come.

[ButterflyBlood]

11. There's no contradiction in those claims

Those weapons probably were sent by Egypt and Jordan, and probably were US in origin. That's because the M-16 rifle is manufactured in the US and sold worldwide to many countries. Not just by the US either, but by plenty of private corporations, you can buy M-16s on the free market or the black market almost anywhere. Put simply, the original origin of a weapon is hardly a way to find out who sold it.

[ohio2007]

14. So where did the $60 million go Congress authorized

in aid to Abbas ?
Egyptian/Jordanian surplus merchants ?

[ButterflyBlood]

18. To fund the PA security forces

Paychecks, maintenance, and yes, weapons are all involved, but that's not the whole thing.

The question is though: What's wrong with the PA having security forces? Everywhere needs police, and that requires funding in some way. Th alternative is to let Israel occupy again and handle everything itself. For Palestine ever to become an independent state, it needs it's own police.

[ohio2007]

23. They have had their own security and police forces for decades

Let the countries of the middle east drop money into that pit.

We shouldn't have to bleed ourselves dry throwing good money after bad,corrupt systems.The alternative was to have Israel pull out of the strip

guess what?
They did.
Israel pulled out and all was to be fixed when they left.


So,
what went wrong with that plan ? Insufficient police force to stop the looting of the ex settlements by day and the rocket attacks by night?

The security forces both looted and launch attacks.

imo, stop funding mob rule

[IndianaGreen]

16. That is such a funny and accurate photo of the Hamas fighter pretending to talk to Condi Rice

The US spoke of free elections.

The US backed the corrupt Fatah.

The Palestinian people, like many people in Latin America, rejected the candidate backed by Washington.

Rather than dealing with the democratically elected Hamas, Washington decided to adopt Israel's rejectionism.

Hamas is now the government of Gaza, which has in turn become a de facto independent Palestinian state.

Israel is annoyed, facing the prospect of an Islamic republic on their southern border, while having a civil war on the West Bank.

The Arab oligarchies of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, et al, are terrified that their cushy lives could meet the same fate of the corrupt Fatah leadership, once their own populations rise against them.

Washington is still backing the Fatah losers.

So here we are!

[dkofos]

10. I guess it is harder to control the "democratic process" in Palestine,

than in the US.
What the Palestinians need are DRE's.

[ohio2007]

13. Arafat home in Gaza ransacked

Gaza City - The Gaza home of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been ransacked by looters, who made off with personal belongings of the late president, witnesses told AFP on Saturday.

"I saw armed people entering inside, stealing Arafat's things and burning one of the bedrooms," said one witness who lives across the street but didn't want his name used for fear of reprisals by the Islamists.


snip
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2131167,00.html


What?
Is there no honor ?

[IndianaGreen]

12. Bush's "Mideast Vision" is based on the Book of Revelation

which is to create the conditions that will expedite the Second Coming of Jesus.

"I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror," the president declared.

America only likes those elections in which our puppets win. American "freedom and democracy" are empty slogans.

[ohio2007]

15. Hamas bans masks for Gaza gunmen

..except when attacking Israel interests !



IN their first order since seizing control of the Gaza Strip, Hamas Islamists banned gunmen from wearing masks - unless they are shooting at Israel.

The masks have become commonplace in the Gaza Strip during weeks of factional fighting between the ruling Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

Both sides wore the masks to hide their identities.


snip
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21919451-5005961,00.html

All of a sudden,just like that, the conceal and carry laws are off the books?

[IndianaGreen]

17. Hamas is now the legitimate government of what is an independent Gaza

Their legitimacy is based on the fact that they were elected in a democratic election. Their taking power in Gaza, is a reaction to the rejectionism of the West and the complicity of Fatah.

We can't go around telling people we support free elections, then turn around and reject the results when our candidate doesn't win.

Our meddling in the Middle East is responsible for the rise of fundamentalist governments in Iraq, and now Gaza.

America should leave the Middle East altogether!

[ohio2007]

21. Let the UN recognize them as an independant state but why should US taxpayers

be asked to fund the rampant corruption that was once an Arafat empire ltd monopoly ?


Let Hamas find money to pay salaries and yet, skim enough off the top to keep their kingpins overseeing the docile general public happy.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181813034863&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[saigon68]

20. wore the masks to hide their identities

Sounds like most SWAT teams in amerika

[ohio2007]

22. Watch a lot of TV ?

SWAT teams hide their identities like Fatah and Hamas?

Nope,
those groups hide their identity out of fear of being recognized and targetted by IDF.

[MisterP]

19. "Magoo-like" is the word