Palestinian missteps; Assad may need a mid-course correction

the elections, Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats to Fatah’s 43.

Frictions between Fatah and Hamas continued for a year and a half, and in June 2007 Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a bloody coup. The cruelty of Hamas was evident, as Fatah leaders who did not manage to get out of the Gaza Strip in time were killed in an especially gruesome manner: they were bound and blind-folded, and then tossed, alive, from high-rise roof-tops.

In response to Hamas taking over Gaza, Abu Mazen appointed Fayyad as Prime Minister of the PA, and the process of normalizing the Palestinian condition began in earnest.

There were several attempts at Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, usually prompted by Saudi pressures, but all failed. It is not yet clear whether this latest effort will succeed, but it is clear that if it does succeed, it is not going to be helpful to the Palestinians in continuing, and completing, the process which began four years ago to have their national aspirations finally fulfilled.

There are three reasons for this.

• Hamas is officially regarded by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization. U.S. members of Congress are already on record saying that the United States will end its economic aid to the Palestinians – and use its influence in international organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF to end the aid these organizations give the Palestinians. Most European countries are likely to follow the U.S. lead. Without this massive financial aid, it will be impossible for the PA to continue with many of the projects initiated under Fayyad during the past four year.
• Hamas, although a fundamentalist Sunni organization, is one of Iran’s two regional agents (the other is Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’a organization). Hamas is armed by Iran, and Hamas military operatives are trained in Iran. One of the ways Iran is trying to achieve its hegemonic regional ambitions is using local agents to destabilize established regimes: Hamas undermined the PA, Hezbollah undermines the Lebanese state, the Shi’a population in Bahrain is goaded by Iranian agents to rise against the Sunni royal family, and more. As the United States and its allies are engaged in a broad campaign to contain Iran and limit its influence, they are not likely to look kindly at the inclusion of a pro-Iranian