Forget the military takeover that they could pull off anyway. All Hamas has to do now is wait a few months:
Hamas is planning to declare one of its top officials as interim president of the Palestinian Authority after Mahmoud Abbas’s term in office expires in January 2009, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip said Sunday. The officials told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas would not recognize Abbas as president of the PA after that date. “We will remove his pictures from all the public institutions,” said one official. “Until now, our policy has been not to challenge Abbas’s legitimacy as the elected leader of the Palestinian Authority.” But, the Hamas official warned, his movement was determined to see Abbas step down in January.
And if they don’t take over the Palestinian Authority directly, they’ll just reconcile with Fatah and do it that way:
While Fatah’s security professionals seek conflict with Hamas, the movement’s political faction wishes to reconcile with Hamas and redirect the anger at Israel. Eight years after the second intifada’s eruption, the controversy in the PA could lead to a renewed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank… Last week, Kadoura Fares, a leader of the Palestinian “peace coalition,” called on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the talks with Israel immediately. Fares, a key Fatah leader from the generation below Abbas, made this statement at a conference on the Geneva Initiative in Tel Aviv. He said it was inconceivable for Abbas to keep talking with Israel while construction in the settlements continued.
It’s not like any of this is a surprise. People have known for months that Abbas will have no choice but to hand over control in January. And prominent Fatah leaders have been calling for a Fatah-Hamas merger for years.
Here’s a bit of a query though, given the continued millions in security assistance that State has been mindlessly pouring into the West Bank: how many Israelis have been directly murdered by US weapons? There’s never any end to the liberal hand-wringing about “Made In The USA” weapons used against Palestinian terrorists. Has anyone checked the figures going the other way? Not even counting the battalions of potential terrorists who’ve gotten US military training. And not even counting how State Department assistance to Hamas has freed up money that the terrorist organization used for weapons. Just actual, physical US weapons turned on Israeli civilians.
Hamas has at least 200 tons worth of US arms that they captured in Gaza and turned against Israeli civilians. That leaves only the weapons that Fatah soldiers used against Israelis. Plus the weapons that they gave to other terrorists. And probably also whatever weapons they kept when they defected to other terrorist groups. Am I forgetting anything?
Regardless: now that Hamas is going to be a legitimate government, that pretty much means that President Obama will have no excuse but to talk to them. Which is the opposite of what a President McCain would have done – but, well, yeah.
Previous and references after the jump.
References:
* Israeli Defense Official: Hamas Takeover Of West Bank Proceeding About How You’d Expect (Plus: Israel In Second Month Of Massive Humanitarian Concessions) [MR]
* Hamas challenges Abbas term extension [JPost]
* Discontented Fatah politicos consider launching third intifada [Ha'aretz]
* State Dept: Sure Abbas Just Said That Palestinians Should Invade And Overrun Israel, But How About We Give Fatah Some More Weapons And Military Training? (Plus: Hamas Closer Than Ever To West Bank Takeover) [MR]
* Fatah: We’re Going To Use Our New US And Russian-Supplied Weapons To Fight With Hamas Against Israel (Plus: Hamas Upgrades, Stockpiles Their Qassams) [MR]
* US State Department Has Been Funding Hamas Terrorists For Years. No Kidding. [MR]
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It’s Israel’s Fault) [MR]
* Hamas Using US Weapons To Kill Israelis [MR]
* PA Police Officers Rolling In Millions Of New US Aid, Murdering Israeli Civilians [MR]
* US Government To Give Palestinian Terrorists Cutting-Edge Weapons [MR]
* Dozens Of Fatah Police Officers Defect To AQ (Plus: Israeli “Goodwill Gesture” – 300 Palestinian Policemen To Deploy Around Nablus) [MR]
* Fatah: We’re Going To Use Our New US And Russian-Supplied Weapons To Fight With Hamas Against Israel (Plus: Hamas Upgrades, Stockpiles Their Qassams) [MR]
* Obama on negotiating: “Hamas is not a state. Hamas is a terrorist organization.” [Hot Air]
* McCain’s Hamas comments, context restored Update: Video context added [Hot Air]
* Gallup Daily: Obama Maintains 8-Point Lead [Gallup]
Previously:
* Abject Failure Keith Dayton Moves Goalposts To Justify US Security Assistance, Lets Abbas Try Again
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They’ve Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II – State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure
* Israeli Security Foils 7 Suicide Bombings From Fatah-Controlled West Bank
