The news is depressing to read or watch at the best of times but the sight of the Palestinians tearing themselves apart is heartbreaking.
After decades of being kept down under the Israeli boot, the murderous Hamas Party has achieved what the likes of Ariel Sharon could not do, dragged Palestine to the brink of self destruction.
After years of being hectored to hold elections and adopt democratic norms, a year and a half ago Palestinians duly elected Hamas with 44 per cent of the vote, ahead of Fatah on 41 per cent.
Isolation and financial embargoes followed because the result did not satisfy the international community and a slow and painful throttling of the Palestinian people set in.
With the Gaza Strip under Hamas control and the West Bank being run by Fatah, a unified Palestine will have to be the first call before we can even get onto a Palestinian State.
Very sad and voting in Hamas to run the Government is a huge setback for the Palestinian cause.
2 comments:
Israel is not responsible for what Hamas or Fatah do. The so called Palestinians are solely responsible for this debacle.
They could have handled this very differently.
BTW, the term war criminal can be applied to any and every leader of a country that has been at war.
"BTW, the term war criminal can be applied to any and every leader of a country that has been at war."
Sure, people can (and do) bandy terms like 'war criminal' around a lot. That's why we need to ask certain questions of these leaders, in terms of what they did up-to-and-during the war, in order to determine whether or not the shoe fits: e.g. Was it a just war? Was it genuinely a war of last resort? Were all reasonable steps take to avoid civilian casualties? Were norms of international law and agreed conventions and protocols observed? Were measures taken to rebuild infrastructure in the wake of the war, in order to limit civilian mortality and distress after the conflict had ended? Questions like that.
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