Casualties of War: Palestinian Moderates

[tekisui]

Source: Time

The biggest political loser in the battle of wills between Israel and Hamas that continues to rage in Gaza is the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas. Even as Western and Arab diplomats take care to assign the increasingly marginalized Abbas a role in negotiations over a truce to end the fighting that has claimed more than 700 lives, he is facing mounting fury from Palestinians, not only in Gaza but also in his West Bank stronghold. When the blistering sermons and Friday prayers were done, several thousand inhabitants of Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority's West Bank seat of power, gathered in the city's central square for what organizers had billed as a demonstration of Palestinian unity against the Israeli offensive in Gaza. But Palestinian unity is wearing pretty thin.

Trouble began when one demonstrator unveiled a Hamas flag, and was immediately set upon by baton-wielding Palestinian police. Although Hamas was voted in as the ruling party in the Palestinian legislature in 2006, and its militias violently ejected security forces controlled by President Abbas from Gaza the following year, the West Bank remains in the hands of its more moderate rival, Fatah, and the U.S.-trained security services answerable to President Abbas. Abbas' presidential term of office ended Friday, although his supporters claim that by their political math, he can still serve another year. Hamas is unlikely to press the issue while it fights to survive in Gaza, but the single most important factor keeping Abbas in power may be the presence of the Israeli military throughout the West Bank, keeping the Islamists on the back foot. (See images of grief in the current conflict)

"What are you doing?" an onlooker shouted, demanding that the police stop beating a flag-waving Hamas supporter. "It's only a flag. We are all one people!" But soon packs of casually dressed security officers — many of them wearing Fatah baseball caps — surged through the crowd, harassing almost anyone who complained, and beating those suspected of supporting Hamas, oblivious to the irony that their makeshift plastic whips were fabricated from cheap Palestinian flags. "Animals!" someone shouted at the officers. "Collaborators! Jews!" screamed an elderly woman at the police.

Similar scenes — which have been occurring almost every day in every major city in the the West Bank since fighting in Gaza began almost two weeks ago — are the most visible example of the political blowback created by the Gaza violence. While Israeli and U.S. officals have suggested that pounding Hamas in Gaza would strengthen Fatah and those Palestinian moderates willing to engage in the peace process, the opposite is occurring on the ground. The rolling demonstrations in the West Bank, which have drawn supporters of both Hamas and Fatah, have become expressions of popular anger not just at Israel and America, but also at President Abbas and his security apparatus.

more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870741,00.html?imw=Y

[Duckhunter935]

1. Moderates on both sides nt

[tekisui]

2. Yes. One more step away from peace and security.