Word: gaza
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...Hamas isn't invited to the Gaza aid conference set for the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, but its control of the territory is an inescapable fact for those attending, including Secretary of State Clinton. Although the U.S. insists that reconstruction money for Gaza be directed through the Palestinian Authority in order to bypass Hamas, that distinction may soon become moot. Egypt, which has aided U.S. and Israeli attempts to isolate Hamas - a close ally of Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood - is currently hosting reconciliations talks between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo. Egypt's hostility...
When Senator John Kerry visited Gaza last week, he made certain to emphasize that he had no contact with Hamas, and demanded that the militants stop firing rockets into Israel. Still, Kerry's visit - one of the first to the coastal strip by an American legislator since Hamas took power there in 2007 - wasn't exactly the kind of publicity that Israeli officials wanted. While being escorted into Gaza by an armed United Nations convoy, Kerry was disturbed by the sight of Israeli security forces blocking trucks filled with pasta from entering the beleaguered territory. Pasta, the Senator was told...
...more concern to Israel, perhaps, is the fact that Kerry's visit highlighted the crumbling of the U.S. and Israeli effort to isolate Hamas inside its Gaza ghetto. Not only did the Islamist organization survive the Israeli incursion aimed at smashing its military capability (sporadic rocket fire from Gaza continues even now); it took advantage of the fog of war to mop up what remains of its rival Fatah movement in Gaza. And as the international effort to rebuild Gaza gathers momentum, it confronts the inescapable political fact that nothing can be done in Gaza without the consent and cooperation...
...Indeed, the brutal reality laid bare in the aftermath of Gaza is that it is Fatah - the longtime ruling party of the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose moderate leadership is backed by the U.S. - rather than Hamas that may be headed the way of the Dodo. Palestinians are increasingly angry that after years of negotiations and photo opportunities with American and Israeli leaders, President Abbas has not managed to secure an end to settlement activity or an end the occupation of the West Bank. His paralysis in the face of Israel's Gaza operation simply confirmed what many Palestinians (and Israelis...
...pictures of life under Hamas in Gaza...