Abbas declares war on Hamas

The Beast continues to eat itself, and the red line has been crossed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decided to go for broke and call for dissolving the Hamas government prior to new elections for the Palestinian parliament, but without naming a specific date.

To Hamas, this is a declaration of open hostilities. Their spokesmen are referring to this as a war between the party of Allah and the party of Satan. The local bosses like Ismail Haniyeh have rightly called this an attempted coup d'etat - while the Syrian factions like Hamas kingpin Khalid Meshaal have already denounced the move as illegal.

Before Abbas made his speech, both sides got in position . Hamas units got ready to seize the Gaza bases of the Fatah-controlled Preventive Security Service command, Palestinian intelligence and the Palestinian national TV studios. Fatah put forces in place to overrun the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, on the West Bank, the main Hamas stronghold in the area.

In the West Bank, Fatah has more boots on the ground, but Hamas has been moving large groups of fighters and weaponry into the region. In Gaza, the situation is just the opposite, with Hamas and its allies greatly outnumbering the Fatah fighters. They also have the advantage of massive amounts of armaments shipped to Gaza via Egypt.

Another factor is the question of how loyal Abbas' fighters really are to him. A lot of Fatah's support is the bought kind, paid for by American tax dollars.

Abbas began his speech in Ramallah by blaming Hamas for the ongoing turmoil in the Palestinian areas. He said that the kidnap of the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit by Hamas in June was the cause of 500 Palestinian deaths, 4,000 injured and thousands of homes wrecked. (Of course, all those Qassam rockets and terrorist attacks from both Gaza and the West Bank have nothing to do with that..right?)

At one point in his little screed, he warned Hamas not to try to "terrorize" him by claiming its rule was God's will!

Hamas leaders said the speech's confrontational tone made it clear Abbas was no longer a partner in government. "Abu Mazen (Abbas) is not part of the solution anymore. He is part of the problem now," said Ahmed Yousef, senior adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.


Abbas also claimed that the attack on Haniyeh's convoy that killed one of his bodyguards and wounded five people, including Haniyeh's son Friday was not a Fatah plot to assassinate Haniyeh . He blamed that little dust up on a mixup between Hamas and Fatah gangsters that kinda got a little out of hand, like. Boys will be boys, ya Allah!

Hamas isn't buying this for a second. The Hamas leadership has already ordered a death sentence for Gaza gang boss Mohammed Dahlan, Fatah's chief functionary in Gaza. They blame him for orchestrating the attack on Abbas' orders.

In view of Dahlan's CIA connections, they might very well be right.

So what we have here is the beginnings of a full fledged gang war, with both sides going to the mattresses.

So what brought this on?

For his part, Abbas had little choice. Things were at a standstill and Hamas was only getting stronger on the ground over time. I also wouldn't be surprised if his US backing wasn't at stake unless he directly challenged Hamas and did something to convince the Bush Administration that his grip on power was strong enough to be worth supporting.

As far as Hamas goes, they realized this was in the cards a long time ago, whch is why they've been arming and preparing.

As I've written before, this has become a proxy war between the Bush Administration and Iran, with both the US and Iran arming and training the respective sides.This is an incredibly bad idea for the US.

For one thing, even if Abbas and Fatah are successful, the nature of the regime and the people is not going to create either one of those utopian `Arab democracies'or even a US ally. These majority of these people, whether Hamas or Fatah are not our friends and are not interested in any kind of peace in the region that doesn't involve destroying Israel and driving the Jews into the sea. And that includes `moderate' Abbas, who cheerfully went along for the ride during the entire Arafat regime. Because of that little fact, Abbas and the Palestinians, even if they win are likely to demand a price from the US that we may not be able of willing to pay.

For another thing, I have a major problem with the hypocrisy of an American government touting `Arab democracy' on one hand and subverting it on the other. Whatever I might think of Hamas,they won a relatively fair election, and our meddling is not lost on the people in the region who's hearts and minds we're supposedly trying to win.

If we don't like the new Palestinian government because they're a fascist, terrorist, Islamist entity, then fine..we can cut off all aid, contact and support for them. We've done it with others.

But because the Palestinians happen to be fighting the Jews in Israel, and because we, the EU and most of all the Saudis want a Palestinian government with a veneer of anti-terrorist `respectability' so we can continue to fund them, the Bush Administration is willing to try and subvert the legally elected government the Palestinians voted in.