Word: fatah
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...Gaza the members of Hamas have stripped off their masks, because they are the victors. For months Hamas and its rival, Fatah, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, brawled for power in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza--until June 10, when the shooting erupted into a climactic, vicious battle. Hamas didn't so much destroy the Fatah forces as cow them into surrender: only 5,000 of the 45,000 men on Abbas' payroll actually put up the pretense of a fight. And for the most part, top Fatah commanders deserted their men, either fleeing on foot to Egypt or aboard...
...pinning its hopes on Abbas, a moderate secularist who has been the titular leader of the Palestinians since the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004. Abbas has dismissed the Hamas-led government elected in January 2006 and appointed a new Cabinet of technocrats. To avoid a repeat of Fatah's defeat in Gaza, the U.S. moved swiftly to bolster Abbas in the West Bank by lifting an embargo on aid funds for the Palestinians. The new strategy--shared by the Israelis, the Europeans and the Bush Administration--is to flood Abbas' government with cash and attempt to transform the West...
There's just one problem with that strategy: it won't work. The world clamped a boycott on the Palestinians after Hamas' victory over Fatah in the January 2006 elections; but as Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser under President Jimmy Carter, says, that U.S.-Israeli policy "put a lot of pressure on the Palestinians in Gaza, which helped to radicalize them without any compensatory relaxation for the Palestinians on the West Bank." The U.S.'s new "West Bank first" strategy aims to correct that shortcoming, but given the Palestinians' defiant mood, the tardy gift could turn into a nasty surprise...
...European Union, the U.N. and Russia--for refusing to accept Israel's existence, renounce violence and adhere to past peace accords signed by Israel and the Palestinians. And yet Hamas still gained support, largely because Abbas failed to rid himself of the corrupt officials that had turned the Fatah movement into a band of gangsters and mercenaries. To Palestinians, Hamas seemed disciplined and more honest, and Palestinians blamed the U.S. and Israel, not the Islamists, for the boycott's miseries. Meanwhile, Hamas sought and received backing from two of Israel's chief nemeses, Iran and Syria...
...offer? The Bush Administration probably won't consider any contact with Hamas until the Gaza leadership mends ties with Abbas' West Bank government. That may yet happen. Though Hamas was merciless against its foes in the first hours of the Gaza conquest, the group declared an amnesty for Fatah's thousands of fighters, including a dozen senior officials. Even after Abbas kicked Hamas out of his government, the group has been careful not to pick fights with him. The group's political leader, Khaled Mashaal, declared that "Abbas has legitimacy ... he is an elected President, and we will cooperate with...