All power to Hamas ...

[bemildred]

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One possible solution to the present confrontation would be to give Hamas the benefit of the doubt, to give them what they are asking for - money, food, medicine and security - then see if they can deliver. That would manage - not end - the conflict between Hamas, Fatah and Israel. That would need a serious mediating effort to restore Gaza to the West Bank and create a cabinet of national unity, under Abbas' authority, to be composed of both Fatah and Hamas members. Collectively, the Islamic party can still boast of a war record in combating Israel, despite all the damage done to its image since it took over Gaza. Fatah - with no Arafat - does not have that luxury anymore. Fatah can provide legitimacy in the international community for Hamas.

Hamas can provide Fatah with allegiance at a grassroot level, in the Palestinian street. Hamas has enough legitimacy - still - to talk and sell peace to the Palestinians and get away with it. Abbas, who nobody sees as a war hero or red-blooded Palestinian nationalist, cannot. He needs Hamas - still - in as much as they need him. Arafat provides the example. In the 1970s, he went to the United Nations and said that he came carrying "an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun", and the world believed him. That was made clear 30 years later, at Oslo in 1993.

The Israelis should have invested in that turning point to achieve their end result with minimum loss and damage to Israel. They could have hollowed out Hamas, emptying it of its very essence, without firing a single shot at the Palestinians. The siege of Gaza, which started last January 2007, has done Israel a great disservice in the international community; almost as painful as the Winograd Commission that came out this week, criticizing the Ehud Olmert government for malpractice during the summer war with Lebanon in 2006. In as strange as it may seem, Olmert needs Hamas in government.

But many things have to be done before this happens. Step one would be to end the siege of Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians. Step two would be to get Mahmud Abbas and Ismail Haniyya on one table to talk and find an acceptable solution to both Fatah or Hamas. Or, to get both men to step down, for the sake of the Palestinians, for the people to chose new leaders who can deliver security, peace and stability.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB02Ak01.html

[poverlay]

1. That's far too reasonable... What? Try and get along? Negotiation? Noooo.. Too hard! nt