Hamas...

Submitted by bloggulator (United States), Jan 1, 2009 at 15:34

A couple of thoughts while here: Considering that Hamas was originally set up by the Israelis to counter Arafat's PLO and set two Palestinian factions against each other (the classic Macchiavellian technique of divide and conquer), it partially worked: the Palestinian people now have disunity, with the non-elected PA operating in the West Bank under the US "approved" Abbas, while Hamas (elected by the Palestinian people in a free, fair and Dieboldless democratic election) is in charge of Gaza.

Was Hamas a terrorist group when it first started? That is doubtful, considering Israel aided Hamas directly; the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)," according to Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies. Israel's support for Hamas "was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative," said a former senior CIA official. Richard Sale, a UPI Correspondent, wrote an article on the origin of Hamas where he pointed out: "According to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years".

Who wants peace? If you polled the Israeli *people*, you get a resounding yes, and similarly with the Palestinian *people*. Those who do not want peace are the tiny minority who are invested in conflict. Both sides have their "warlords", and without that way of life, i.e. war, they have nowhere to hang their hat. Couple that with the macho mideast characteristic, where backing down is seen as the ultimate "loss of face", and it is obvious that this conflict is endless, that is, until no human recognizes his or her heritage as "Palestinian". This may take a long time, but the eventual extinction could possibly happen: the Arab world has consistently refused for decades to send financial/humanitarian etc aid to Palestinian brothers and sisters in, despite their massive oil wealth, in order to rebuild the infrastructure of Gaza and the West bank.

Ostentatious Dubai, for example, rolling in an ocean of cash is spending $billions in oil revenue making palm tree shaped islands in the sea, just for a "status symbol", while their fellow Arabs starve in Gaza. What little cash that does get through is hijacked by the militant factions to buy arms, or is frittered away. Iran is willing to supply some token, inaccurate rockets,(noisy, scary, but militarily useless) but draws the line against supplying useful and effective "hi tech" or precision weaponry (such as heat seaking surface to air missiles) to counter Israeli F16s and helicopters. While the Arab world looks the other way, the ... U.S. and Israeli hardline right wing demonize all Palestinians as "terrorists" (with a complicit US media reporting on only one side of the story) while the IDF engages in the systematic destruction of their homes, farms, villages and orchards with US supplied bulldozers, and other activities which fit the FBI (and September 23, 2001 order by President Bush) definitions of terrorism. Both sides are committing terrorist acts; Gaza gets bombed for it, while the IDF does whatever brand of terrorism they want, under cover of "legitimate defensive measures". The bottom line is the bottom line. Peace isn't profitable enough for the ones who make the decision on both sides.

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