Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Elder of ZiyonYNet: Saudis funding Hamas through "charities"
It's Almost Supernatural: Benny Morris takes down Ronnie Kasrils on the Six Day War
UN: West Bank UNRWA warehouse in Nablus looted, computers and tons of food stolen
Ajami in NYT: Peaceful Fatah West Bank a fantasy
WaPo op-ed: "Fatah has ceased to exist as an ideologically or organizationally coherent movement."
New York Sun:
It will be a farce if President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert spend their meeting Tuesday discussing a two-state solution or how many millions of dollars are needed to shore up the non-existent authority of Fatah. What is needed is a plan to stop the addition of Gaza to Jihadistan, to contain it, and to bleed it.
Throwing money at the problem will not do. If the Gaza collapse has proved anything, it is that Western funding ends up either in the hands of Muslim fundamentalists or in the pockets of corrupt Fatah officials. Many Palestinian Arabs are cared for with funds from the UN and Western charities. This humanitarian aid, unfortunately, has relieved Palestinian Arab terror groups, such as Hamas and Fatah, from the obligation of feeding their own and allows them to use all their money for war.
Dennis Ross in WSJ:
Since January, the administration's objective has been to produce a "political horizon" between Israelis and Palestinians - meaning an agreement (or plan) on the contours of a permanent status deal on Jerusalem, refugees and borders. The feasibility of such an objective needs to be reassessed now. With two Palestinian regimes, one led by Fatah in the West Bank and one led by Hamas in Gaza, does it make sense to be defining what permanent status would look like? Pushing for an objective that is demonstrably not achievable now is not going to enhance our already shaky position in the Middle East.
Robert Satloff:
"We should not believe the simplistic logic that says the West Bank is totally controlled by Fatah while Gaza is totally supportive of Hamas; indeed, there is quite a lot of Hamas support in the West Bank, too. But Hamas has not succeeded in penetrating nearly as far in the West Bank primarily due to the active presence of the Israeli army. Ironically, the political horizon that some in the administration would like to talk about would raise premature hopes about the removal of precisely that factor that is the most important barrier to the spread of Hamas in the West Bank today."
Cox and Forkum:
UPDATE:
ADL: Anti-semitic cartoons in Arab media blame Israel for Fatah/Hamas fighting. (h/t Zionist Spy.)
