Sartre famously wrote that “Hell is other people.” Until now, he may have had a point. But indisputably today: Hell is Gaza.
From the AP:
Thousands of angry activists from the defeated Fatah Party demanded their leaders’ resignations, Palestinian police stormed a parliament building in Gaza and other security forces clashed with Hamas gunmen – signs of growing instability following Hamas’ victory in parliamentary election.Fatah gunmen climbed on top of the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah, fired in the air and posted a picture of the late leader Yasser Arafat on the roof to cheers and whistles from hundreds of supporters below. Dozens of armed police officers briefly stormed the building in Gaza City and demanded an immediate trial for Hamas members who killed police in fighting in recent months.
And then there’s this:
About 2,000 Fatah members marched in the West Bank city of Nablus, led by dozens of gunmen from the Fatah-allied Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, who fired in the air from the back of a truck.“We are now no longer part of the cease-fire,” one of the gunmen, Nasser Haras, told the crowd. Palestinian militants groups agreed last year to a cease-fire with Israel.
In Bethlehem, about 400 activists, including dozens of gunmen, took over the party’s local office and demanded the resignation of party leaders. In Tulkarem, gunman Ibrahim Khreisheh warned against cooperating with Hamas.
“Whoever will participate in a government with Hamas, we will shoot him in the head,” he said.
Okay, that’s not Gaza – that’s the West Bank. Shall we extend the definition of Hell? [Gaza has lots of Mediterranean beach front. Couldn't they build a resort?-ed. There's a thought.]
I think that Israel should:
1. finish that fence and make it higher if possible
2. ban all traffic between the West Bank and Gaza
3. Continue to kill or capture terrorists
4. Cut off all jobs, social services, money and if terror continues – power and water.
In my Note to Hamas congratulating them on their victory, I did note that they should welcome their new shirts that come with heading up the Palestinian State… the ones with day-glo bull’s eyes front and back.
And it seems that their Loyal Opposition, Fatah, is giving Hamas the same sort of treatment that Hamas gave them.
Dear me…
Unfortunately, a higher wall won’t do the job. Hamas will just buy and build bigger and longer range rockets, to rain indiscriminant tragedy down on the Isralis.
Hamas will turn Palestine into a terrorist paradise, threatening the whole world. It will become what Afghanistan had been, but with much better logistics and facilities.
Meanwhile ordinary Palestinians, who were foolish enough to elect this bunch, will suffer as Israela and perhaps other countries respond to the inevitable atttacks by terrorists who will make “Palestine” their new home. And of course, there will be mayhem in the the Palestinian territories.
This process actually brings into the question the whole project of bringing democracy to the middle east. Some people really are not ready for democratic elections – their choices are evil and the process will mean they only get *one* election followed by some sort of mugogracy.
They are like very bad, heavily armed children.
John, Fatah is just Hamas Light. I don’t think this proves that there can be no democracy in the ME. It proves the Pals are dysfunctional, no news there. Israel is in the same place it was before.
The place that will be called Palestine will hardly be another Talibani Afhanistan; it will also be temporary. The military challenge for Israel or other “friendly” states will be much easier and the area more compact. Which is not to say that the gathering conflict will be less ugly.
I think the Palestinians have made their last Devil’s Bargain, and have voted for their own extinction. With Hamas they seem to have the confidence, arrogance and certainties of the mob. Inevitably, they’ll find out what organized and determined armies are capable of doing to them.
If anything is true about the Palis, the current lot is the Darwinian result of years and years of Western complicity in the elaborate excuses and pandering by the American Left, and before Bush, the moderate Right. The creative thinkers among them have been gone for years, and what remains is base and primitive. It’s just a matter of time before the fires break out.
The only way this could be bad for the Palestinians is if Israel, the U.S. and Europe respond to it in a rational manner. In recent memory, that has not been the case. We have all spent BILLIONS to fund the very people who want to kill us. I see no evidence that this will change anytime soon, if at all.
Yeah, just remember that the leaders of the Khmer Rouge were Satre’s students in Paris. What a wonderful legacy for the imfamous Jean-Paul!
Now, the rational approach to those of us in North America, is to break out the hot buttered popcorn, sit back and ENJOY. Now, if only all of Jimmy Carter’s friends would just stop the money… as to Hamas pounding Israel with bombs… nahhh… their REAL enemy is Fatah!!
John
A higher fence won’t stop rockets but the fence is designed to stop suicide bombers and in that capacity it has succeeded magnificently.
I always figure that Sartre was looking in the mirror when he said that.