Abbas wins int'l backing for taking control of Gaza border

I think this is likely something like what will be done now; Egypt, PNA, and Yurpean observers running the Rafah crossing. Things will be kept somewhat tolerable within Gaza, and perhaps Hamas will be given enough of a cookie so they don't make trouble for a while.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won European, American and Arab backing on Monday for taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt, intensifying his power struggle with the Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday signaled American support for Abbas' forces taking charge of the border.

Rice said a Palestinian Authority presence might help bring "some order" to the Rafah border crossing between the two since hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded across after Hamas militants blew up part of the border last week. "There would be many details that would have to be worked out and I can't comment on any specific detail because this is obviously a very complex -- would be a very complex operation in itself," Rice told reporters when asked whether Washington supported Abbas' forces taking charge of the border.

"But we have said that in concept it should be supported and that the parties should look to see if that might be one way to handle the situation," she said at a news conference after meeting Australia's foreign minister.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/948900.html

Last I knew, the PA aka the PLO has zero ability to do anything in Gaza as Gaza is run by the legally elected government aka Hamas.

As usual, every event in this mess is a surreal and generally tragic act of idiocy.

However, it seems most unlikely that Egypt wants Hamas in control of the crossing, and Egypt has a great deal of leverage. I am expecting that some sort of deal will be cut, which we will not have explained to us out here in TV land. It is true that Hamas can queer the deal it they choose to be intransigent about it, but that would be foolish of them, and they were quite astute in planning and timing the breakout.

anytime they choose, that Egypt cannot do anything about it. I don't see what Hamas gets out of this. I see what Fatah gets out of it, but Hamas gets nothing.

It would be foolish of Hamas to push their luck.

palestinians at the border. I agree that obviously Egypt could start shooting, but I think that is just about the last thing Mubarak needs at this point. And yes of course Hamas is not going to stick it to Mubarak too much, but they also are not going to allow Israel to succeed in starving them out of power. So far they have shown that they are capable playing this little game quite well, I would expect them to continue to do so. Still - why would they want to hand Fatah this trophy?

If they are lucky, they will get better treatment for Gazans, an end to the boycott and blockade, and de facto recognition of their control of Gaza, for the time being anyway, with a few fig leafs arranged here and there in strategic places. This could be one of those fig leafs. I am doubtful that they can force overt control of the crossing, nor does it appear to me that they need it now.

. . their lives at great risk, firing into crowds of rock-throwing Palestinians bussed to Rafah by Hamas.

Such images would go far toward uniting the Arab world against Abbas and giving Hamas a real shot at taking control of the WB from a weakened and discredited Fatah organization.

It almost seems pre-ordained.

(Note: My use of the word pre-ordained, above, refers to comparisons with previous patterns of behavior by Hamas and has no religious or cultural significance.)

Date: 28 / 01 / 2008 Time: 11:59



Bethlehem – Ma'an – An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt may mediate between his Fatah party and their rival, Hamas, in talks aimed at restoring Palestinian unity.

Nabil Sha'ath, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and an advisor to Abbas, told the London-based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper that he met with one of the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leaders, Muhammad Habib, and the group's Secretary General, Mahmoud Izzat.

It was Sha'ath's first meeting with the Brotherhood since he became a representative of the Palestinian president.

"I explained the situation between Fatah and Hamas, and they understood that situation, expressing their will to intervene," Sha'ath said, adding that he asked the Brotherhood to "play a positive role" by not favoring either side in the ongoing splint within Palestinian society.

Muhammad Habib said the meeting addressed the repercussions of the current crisis in the Palestinian territories inside Palestine and throughout the Arab world.


http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=27468

It does to me, but I don't know what to make of it.

to take over.

I wish I had access to Arabic language news! (husband is traveling).

I read this story in Israeli media, but viewed it with skepticism. But this seems to be coming from Fatah. It is not surprising that the Brotherhood would want to "help", or that Hamas would be OK with that, but it seems odd coming from Fatah, and I am sure Mubarak would not like seeing his enemies play a role in this. And Mubarak has already supported Fatah running the crossing, so I don't quite get it.

Without their cooperation, the whole thing is sunk anyway.

These are some interesting times, aren't they?

Like I said, I think they will have to get a cookie of some kind. But politicians cannot always be relied on to be sensible and cut their losses. Stay tuned.

I hope that Hamas enjoyed this nonviolent victory, and are clear about its effectiveness. I would love to see them forego violence -- perhaps this can be a springboard to that.

If there was ever a time to show they could stop the rockets, this is it.

Another view on this. This is WSJ, which normally makes me puke, but this fellow makes some interesting points about what is going on.

What if Gaza were to conquer Egypt? The possibility is not as remote as it may seem just by glancing at the map.

Egypt has more than 50 times the population of its former colony and 2,800 times the landmass. But Gaza is sovereign Hamas territory, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and Egypt -- not Israel -- is the country that has most to fear from a statelet that is at once the toehold, sanctuary and springboard of an Islamist revolution.

No wonder liberal Egyptians are reacting with near-hysterical alarm to last Wednesday's demolition of the border fence between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai. The Brotherhood organized at least 70 demonstrations throughout Egypt early last week to protest Israel's economic blockade of the Strip, itself a reaction to Hamas's rocket barrages into Israel. "Arm us, train us and send us to Gaza," chanted the demonstrators, along with "O rulers of Muslims, where is your honor, where is your religion?" The independent Egyptian daily Almasry Alyoum also described conversations between Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, to coordinate their activities. "We will take to the streets and defend our brothers in Gaza, even if we are all tried in military courts," Mr. Akef was reported as saying.

As Middle Eastern power plays go, Hamas's decision to dismantle the Gaza-Sinai border was a masterstroke. Gaza's economic woes are almost wholly self-inflicted, but they are real. Dynamiting and bulldozing the border of a neighboring country is legally an act of war, but it was made to seem like a humanitarian necessity and a bid for freedom. Flooding that neighbor with hundreds of thousands of desperate people is a massive economic burden on Egypt, but one that it shirks at its political peril.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120156765863623885.html?mod=hps_us_at_glance_columnists

and with the murky politics of hamas/brotherhood/fatah/israel/egypt......and not to mention the underlying groups as well......i wouldnt bet on anything at this point

Is your group still active?

one of the originators has teamed up with a guy named "Faglin" (religious settler-smart extremist)....and the term democracy is now being turned in to "jewish democracy"

I made it clear that i dont accept "modified/corrupted forms of democracy"....the argument was interesting in their attempts to convince me that its "nothing..... (how jewish values are in their core democratic, therefore its one and the same....)

but if that is the direction, then its not for me.

I admire you for trying.

really consider abu mazen a "puppet?"

That seems extreme to me, like calling Arafat a puppet, or something. His credentials aren't exactly pro-zionist. It seems like you may feel that any Palestinian leader who truly engages the Israelis with a spirit of compromise and cooperation (ie: is willing to make some hard sacrifices for the sake of his people's ultimate well-being), is essentially a quisling. What makes you consider him a "puppet?"

I can't stand this man. It sickens me that he's perfectly willing to break bread with Olmert and Barak while Gazans go hungry.

It sickens me that after the elections, that Fatah lost due to their corruption, that rather than take stock and start fresh, that they chose to punish Hamas for daring to challenge them.

There could have been a unity gov't from day one, with Fatah chastised, and working with Hamas for the good of the country. But Fatah would have none of it. It sickens me that he sent his henchman Dahlan down to Gaza to attempt a coup against Hamas.

It makes me crazy that he's more concerned about Fatah than about Palestine.

He's a selfish and corrupt. He's the wrong man to lead Palestine, but I can see why the Americans and Israelis are in his corner. Given his corruption and lack of backbone, he's easy to manipulate.

People sat in Gaza Strip dying. Fellow Palestinians. And he didn't lift a finger or raise a voice.

Haram! Eib!

a piece that summarizes events in way that rings 100% true to me.

I warn you, though, the early paragraphs set about making a case that Israel's effort is a genocide. Please skip thru the first 5 'graphs to the body. The author's recitaton of events can certainly be read independent of the genocide argument.

http://www.transnational.org/Area_MiddleEast/2007/Falk_PalestineGenocide.html/url

You can quibble, and he'd have done as well to leave the Holocaust out of it, like you say ...

including the $244 million that the Gazans recently spent in egypt on tvs, electronics, motorcycles, and other good fun stuff. In three days.

These comparisons to the Holocaust, to genocide, to making the comparison of the plight of the Gazans being in any way, shape or form similar to anything that concentration camp victims endured is obscene. Those shuttled off to concentration camps did not get to vote (for terrorists or anyone else), did not receive billions of dollars in aid, or humanitarian support, including food and electricity, from the Nazis.

No matter how bad Gaza is, they have had a hand in their misery, which the Jews did not, and they obviously have money, as their recent buying spree shows.

Comparisons to auschwitz are over the top, but this is the modern equivalent of a 20th century walled off ghetto complete with surrounding military cordon. It is an indefensible abomination.

Have 100,000 people died from starvation in Gaza? Are they being fed 253Kcal a day (the ration in Warsaw)? Disease was rampant in the Warsaw ghetto, and people simply died; there were no hospitals or anyone to care for them. The Israelis still bring in Palesitnians for care in Israel, and there are Gazan hospitals. Food and humanitarian supplies come into Gaza daily, while the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto either starved, died of disease, or were sent to concentration camps (most of them who didn't die of starvation or disease left this way,only to be killed on the other end).

I can't stand idiotic comparisons. You really have no idea what you are talking about.

Life On The Egyptian/Gaza Border. - Post Media Reply
Video shows what life is like living on the Egyptian/Gaza border.



http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b4b_1201519710


Things look calm but I wonder if 'the people' are ready to vote Hamas out of power ?
Afterall, Hamas was a protest vote to Arafats political party that ran the region for years.

I'm not sure the inhabitants of that region are willing to see that wall get sealed up again. They may rise up against Hamas govt and demand they step down if it does get sealed tight. Time to wait and see if "a small minority" are willing to keep the status quo in place of lobbing rockets because of "X" that happened in the past.

Face it,
So far it's a case of all quiet on the western front .

WHich side will break firts?