Austrian Commentary Sees USA, Israel “Reanimating”, “Feeding’ Abbas
Text of report by Austrian newspaper Der Standard website on 20 June
[Commentary by Gudrun Harrer: "To Bring Back on Track"]
Evil resides in the Gaza Strip, whereas the good West Bank enjoys the sympathetic West’s affection – and its support. Having let Palestinian [National] Authority President Mahmoud Abbas starve to death, Israel and the United States are now reanimating and feeding him. Hopefully, he will not feel sick.
It sounds like mockery when Abbas and his emergency government are now even promised talks about the “political horizon.” What could it consist of? Maybe of another unilateral – that means not negotiated – withdrawal like the one from the Gaza Strip, which made a significant contribution to breaking the Palestinian [National] Authority’s neck? It is also interesting to observe US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice being outraged about Hamas straying from the path of democracy. It is an original lecture in democracy that the Palestinians have been allowed to learn since January 2006.
To prevent misunderstandings: the actions taken by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which have apparently been planned for some time, are not acceptable, and it does not need to be repeated in whose spirit it is acting. How it has come this far, that is old hat; internal Palestinian as well as external factors have contributed to it. It is important now not to make any new mistakes. The worst would be to let a humanitarian disaster happen in the Gaza Strip.
It is also time to call to mind that Hamas also gained majorities – some clear majorities – in the West Bank in January 2006. So it will not be enough just to restore the situation before the elections in order to bring the Palestinians back on Al-Fatah track. A Palestinian leader who would probably be able to do that is imprisoned in Israel: Marwan Barghouti, and from there he is fiercely attacking Hamas. But for a step as dramatic as his release the Israeli Government, for its part, is far too weak.
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