Israel gives Green Light....

To target Hamas politicians it says are connected to rocket fire/terrorism into Israel.

Story here from Jerusalem Post.

I can't see how this is a good strategy. Creating some "martyrs" & being those who targeted by the Israelis is exactly why Hamas has popularity on the street.

There were wings to Hamas and after their election their was a moment to start splitting of those wings up. This only unites them the more.

When the US engineered a coup against former Iraqi PM al-Jaafari to install Maliki. And is now rumored to be considering a coup against Maliki. When the US and Israel won't acknowledge the democratic election of the Palestinians, what narrative is left but the Cosmic War?

How is anyone in that part of the world to believe the US wants political freedom for the Arab world? Unless it is on US terms.

Of course there are strong terrorist cells in Hamas. But by lumping all of Hamas into one group you never isolate the terrorist groups. The only people--as we see in Iraq--who can fight and effectively handle these groups are the people themselves. The elements of Hamas that wanted political solutions--even if not necessarily wanting to recognize Israel right away--had to be given a path to gain credibility and success.

By cutting that off, there is only one way they know from their experience to get things done--attacks on Israel.

This is my fear after the fallout of the neoconservative democratic foreign policy of 2005-06. That the neocons are shifting to wanting long term intra-Muslim fighting in the Middle East. While Giuliani is not a neocon formally, I fear this tendency in him. And Romney in his new appeal to the right wing of the Republican base is aping some of this language too. Don't know if it's just campaign slogans, popular with the people or if they are really starting to buy their own lines.

The US can not be fighting Sunni Salafi revivalism and the Shia simultaneously. It can not be calling for elections one minute and then nullifying their results the next. Otherwise we are back to where we started: blank check support for Sunni dictators who create the conditions that feed terrorism.

1. By siphoning off that radical element at home and sending it abroad in the form of radical mosques and charities around the world. Saudis.

2.Creating further hatred of US (and by extension Israel) for its support of such regimes.

The Saudis have made clear they will not and do not accept the legitimacy of Maliki. Turki al-Faisal (former Saudi Amb. to US) just announced that the UN must pass a resolution condemning any attempts at partition in Iraq. They have told the US they would support a dictatorship in Iraq by Iyad Allawi.

You see where all this is going. Cheney goes to Riyadh. Bush has pinned himself to the wall by backing this Shia fundamentalist government in Iraq while simultaneously giving up the democracy meme and ponying up to the Gulf State Sunni autocrats. All the while arguing the real enemey is Iran, Syria, Hezbollah.

If the Saudis, etc. enter Iraq this could break any chance of a Sadr-Iraqi Sunni alliance. And then it will be Shia on Sunni all out war.

tags technorati : israel

tags technorati : palestinian authority

tags technorati : hamas