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The Cunning of Mahmoud Abbas

I think Martin Indyk has got it exactly right:

Over the past year when Hamas would stage attacks in Gaza, Fatah forces would retaliate in the West Bank, where they were stronger. When fighting began this time, Fatah did little in the West Bank to counter Hamas's onslaught. Abbas's passivity further confirms that the fix was in. Abbas and Fatah have in effect conceded Gaza to Hamas while they hold on to the West Bank. Hamastan and Fatahstine: a "two-state solution" — just not the one that George W. Bush had in mind.

"Give Hamas enough rope and it'll hang itself" may not be an especially attractive option when human lives are stake and the short-term yield is an Islamist statelet that enslaves women and secularists, but what options are left to Fatah?  The Quartet has failed at every turn to take Hamas seriously enough to let its democratic mandate expire of natural causes. The irony of this may be the satisfaction of the Quartet's signal demand: one Palestinian leader is taking responsibility for its own people by forcing them to confront their own demons. (Gaza relies for electricity and water on Egypt and Israel, two countries that are not likely to provide either to Hamas.)

If sane Palestinians can the isolate theocratic fascists in their own back yard, then all the better.

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