Disasters and Double Standards

So now Hamas is virtually in control of the Gaza Strip, having seized key PA security outposts there. According to one spokesman for the Islamist group, Fatah intelligence and operations documents have been seized proving that Israel and Fatah are in cahoots to destabilize Hamas's electoral hold on the region, which of course hasn't stopped Fatah spokesmen from claiming that Israel is up to no good all by itself.

"If we release these documents, the entire world will be shocked, not just the Palestinians. The dozens of armored vehicles, RPG launchers and rockets, the hundreds of thousands of bullets we have – they are all nothing compared to the documents and data discs we uncovered.

So let them release the documents already.

We hear from an international chorus every day of how the chaos in Iraq means the struggle for establishing a civil society there is lost, yet there has not been any analogous foreboding about Palestine's internal agonies. Shall we call it, too, a failed state unworthy of our continued attention?

Evidently not, as the conventional wisdom is now that the so-called "Quartet" — comprised of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — has, through benign neglect of the Hamas government, subverted every chance at a peace deal. Correct-thinking liberals are appalled that the Quartet would deny funds to the region and refuse to engage diplomatically with the Haniyah leadership until it has met certain "benchmarks," most notably the recognition of Israel. But are these not similar to the prerequisites correct-thinking liberals now demand be fulfilled by the Maliki government in Baghdad? Why is it wrong to hold one democratically elected regime hostage to its own intelligence and competence, but not another?