Fatah, Hamas, Israel and the United States

It has been said more than once that the only ‘peace’ Israeli Prime Murderer Benjamin Netanyahu wants with the Palestinian people is a greater ‘piece’ of Palestine. We will look at a few facts:

+ After Hamas was democratically-elected by the people of the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed a brutal, crushing, illegal blockade that has now lasted more than ten years.

+ While demanding that Palestine recognize Israel, the Zionist entity continues to steal Palestinian land, decreasing the chances for an independent Palestinian nation.

+ Netanyahu demands that Hamas disarm, despite the fact that Israel has demonstrated nothing but armed brutality against the Palestinians for decades.

+ Israel steals more and more land in the West Bank; the only thing preventing such constant land theft in the Gaza Strip is Hamas.

Now, after a decade of separation, Hamas and Fatah, the puppet government that ostensibly rules the West Bank, although its leader, the traitor Mahmoud Abbas, dances to Netanyahu’s tune, have reached a unity agreement. Both Israel and the United States are in high dudgeon, both making demands on Palestine. A Fatah government spokesman responded to these dictates by saying the following:  “The deal that we signed with Hamas talks about building a Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders.” He also stated that any agreement between Hamas and Fatah is an internal Palestinian affair, and not susceptible to outside demands.

The agreement differs from previous attempts in that Hamas recognizes the pre-1967 borders. Although it stops short of official recognition of Israel, this is a major concession, and one that, if it were dealing with a reasonable international partner, would be seen as such. But Israeli officials take no responsibility for their own constant violations of international law. They decry any ineffective rocket fire from Gaza, ignoring the fact that an occupied people are allowed by international law to resist the occupation in any way possible, as they allow IDF (Israel Defense Forces; the official terrorist arm of the Israeli government), to kill, kidnap and imprison Palestinians for no reason except that they are Palestinian, with complete impunity. The also permit illegal Israeli settlers (the unofficial terrorist arm of Israel), to do the same.

Israel’s leaders appear to be ambidextrous; with one hand, they control the traitor Abbas, and with the other, they pull the strings of the U.S. government. After initially welcoming any move to unite Hamas and Fatah, a U.S government spokesman has now weighed in, echoing Israel’s demands on the Palestinians.

Surely, no one doubts that Israel and Palestine are archenemies. Israel’s very existence was established on the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinians, innocent people driven from their homes and lands to languish in refugee camps, as Israelis took over, bulldozed their cities and villages, including homes, schools, mosques and everything else, and built new cities. At least 10,000 Palestinians, including men, women and children, were slaughtered at this time. Since then, Israel has continued its unspeakably cruel actions without a break. Palestine, with no army, navy or air force, is in no position to threaten Israel; the Zionist entity, however, backed by the United States, routinely pulverizes the Gaza Strip, as it wreaks terror on the West Bank on a daily basis. Yet both Israel and the U.S. demand that Hamas disarms.

We will look at a hypothetical, but parallel situation. Israel, with no dearth of archenemies, is now encouraging the U.S. to invade Iran. Why does the U.S. not demand that Israel disarm, and recognize Iran? Why does the U.S. not instruct Israel to cease all talk of violence against Iran? Why does the U.S. not seek to dictate how the Israeli government operates (especially since it is quite obvious that the Israeli government dictates a significant area of U.S. foreign policy)?

Obviously, these suggestions are ludicrous; the U.S. would not insist such things of an ally, disreputable as that ally might be. Why, then, does it expect Palestine to do the exact same things it would never realistically expect any other country to do?

Previous presidents have proposed sending a peacekeeping force to ‘protect’ Israel’s constantly-expanding borders from the big, bad Palestinians. But no, Israeli officials have proclaimed that no one is capable of protecting their sacred, stolen land as well as Israelis themselves. The real reason Israel refuses the offer is clear: any international peacekeeping force to ‘protect’ Israel’s borders would need to know what those borders are. Israel can ‘defend’ them as it continues to expand them, by stealing Palestinian land. These are not the actions of a government seeking peace with its neighbors.

Still to be heard from on the U.S. side is the clown-like U.S. Embarraser to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. In April, the illustrious Madam Embarraser suggested that the United Nations Security Council decree that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and declare that there will be ‘consequences’ for any nation that supports it. Sadly, one does not expect anything better from any U.S. political hack.

Also silent, thus far, is the embattled Secretary of State, Exxon oil company executive Rex Tillerson. He may be too busy trying to bail the quickly-entering waters of the ship of state he steers, as his captain seems more and more prepared to make him walk the plank. One must give him some credit; he did refer to U.S. President Donald Trump as a ‘moron’. And, he is pursuing diplomacy with North Korea (efforts constantly undermined by the Great Orange One), and supported certifying that Iran is in compliance with the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, which his boss threw out the window. Perhaps he is too engaged elsewhere to deal with the Israel-Palestine situation. And it must be remembered that even Trump himself has said that Netanyahu is more of an obstruction to peace than the Palestinians. It isn’t often that the U.S. president states the obvious.

What comes next for Palestine? There are still many ‘unknowns’:

+ How sincere is Mahmoud Abbas in reunifying the government?

+ Will Abbas insist, as his Israeli masters order, on the disarming of Hamas, which would spell the death of Palestine?

+ If Fatah and Hamas do reconcile, will Israel find some excuse to carpet-bomb the Gaza Strip again?

+ How might the U.S. interfere, to crush the human-rights aspirations of the Palestinians, to please its Israeli masters?

+ Will the international community, which has long betrayed Palestine, continue its neglect, or finally take some positive action?

The success of the reconciliation of the Palestinian government would not stop Israeli violence against the Palestinians overnight; it is too deeply ingrained in the government and large swaths of the racist population to allow that to happen. But a unified Palestinian government on the world stage would send an important message to the international community, which might, in turn, turn up the pressure on apartheid Israel.

The agreement between Fatah and Hamas, coupled with Egypt’s surprising new willingness to assist, however minimally, ever-growing boycotts further ostracizing Israel, and Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East, all bode well for Palestine. One does not wish to be too optimistic, but some positive signs are in view.

Robert Fantina’s latest book is Propaganda, Lies and False Flags: How the U.S. Justifies its Wars.