Hamas, Gaza and Bush’s Legacy

[bemildred]

One would have to have a heart of stone not to be appalled by the mass suffering visited upon the Gaza Strip by Israel’s punishing assault. If blame is to be assessed, however, it does not belong to Israel alone.

The Gaza war between Israel and Hamas is but another legacy of George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency. After Israel withdrew its soldiers and its 8,000 settlers from Gaza in the summer of 2005, the Bush administration decided to bring “democracy” to the Palestinians. It insisted on running a parliamentary election and allowing Hamas to compete.

Hamas was not legally qualified to run without meeting the minimum requirements of the Oslo agreements still in effect from the 1990s: primarily to renounce violence and accept Israel’s existence. Qualifying for elections in this way might have been a lever to get Hamas to change its spots, but the Bush State Department insisted on allowing Hamas to run as it was, cynically assuming that it would not win. Hamas won a plurality of votes with 44 percent to Fatah’s 42 percent and took power early in 2006.

Soon after its election, Hamas declared a truce, but it was still allowing other factions to fire at Israel. Hamas even lauded as “resistance” two successful suicide bombings—one in Tel Aviv and another in Ashdod. A coalition of groups, including Hamas, captured one IDF soldier, while killing two others, in a cross-border raid in June of 2006; this one soldier, Gilad Shalit, is still their prisoner. Tragically, in response, Israeli forces rampaged through Gaza that summer, killing several hundred Palestinians to no avail (a veritable second front to the larger Lebanon war raging to the north).

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4212/hamas_gaza_and_bushs_legacy/

[Vegasaurus]

1. Hamas could have treated the win like a real chance to improve lives for the Palestinians

instead they continue to act like roving bodies of rogue terrorists, unable to control themselves or other armed militants in the territory.

Bush blew it by pushing for elections, and Hamas blew it by proving that they had no idea whatsoever about how to run a government (since they have sure made a mess of it).

[azurnoir]

2. My gosh where ever did you find this gem

as a work of historical "shorthand" it deserves special acclaim

[bemildred]

3. Yes, that's why I put it up.

Relatively even-handed too.