Finally a realistic "authority" in the PA

Submitted by mike in Lansdowne (United States), Jan 27, 2006 at 17:41

The very bright silver lining in Hamas's victory is that finally authority and accountability are in the same place in the PA.

As long as Abbas (and before him, Arafat) could seriously negotiate on the basis of their willingness to disarm Hamas and IJ, and then to duck the issue when it was time to perform, nothing would ever be done as a result of negotiation (as Israel learned the hard way).

Now that the people with the guns and the bombs have the power, if there is ever a serious negotiation (a very big if) those doing the negotiation will have the clear ability--visible to all in advance--to remove a major source of terrorism. If they come to an agreement and then they don't perform, they won't have Fatah's excuse and they will be discredited in a way that Fatah never was.

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