Mere Rhetoric: Palestinian Non-Civil War Watch: Hamas Is Kind Of Winning

UPDATE (19:04 PST) - This part seriously needs its own post, but it's the weekend and we're lazy:

Hamas said the attack on the convoy of trucks was aimed at thwarting an attempt to deliver US-supplied weapons to Abbas's forces. Hamas gunmen managed to seize some of the trucks, which entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, after killing and capturing several members of Abbas's Presidential Guard who were escorting the convoy.

Which means that you can now add "Hamas will steal the weapons" to the list of reasons why it's bad to give weapons and training to Fatah forces. It joins "Hamas wi'll be given the weapons", "Fatah members will defect to Hamas", and "Fatah members will become terrorists themselves". Not that anyone in the State Department will notice.

UPDATE (19:02 PST) - Further down in the article is the paragraph you can use whenever someone asks you "how could helping Abbas's forces possibly spur Fatah-Hamas violence from both ends?"

The official said he was unaware of reports that dozens of PA security officers had defected to Hamas in the past three days. He dismissed as "lies" claims by Hamas that American and Israeli security experts were helping Abbas's forces.

Presumably, they took any guns and training with them. Which is exactly the problem with that we've been yelling about since this stupid "give cutting edge weapons to Fatah" plan was announced.

ORIGINAL - Give these people a state! ASAP!

Security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas suffered a major blow on Saturday when a number of their headquarters fell into the hands of Hamas militiamen in the Gaza Strip. Some of the security installations were completely damaged by fire while others were leveled by Hamas militiamen and their supporters. The attackers captured documents and equipment as residents rushed to loot the offices.

You know what's going to happen? The US is going to rush a bunch of weapons and money to Abbas, in order to reinforce him and his oh-so-moderate forces. That would be the moderate who says that he will turn their weapons on Israelis - their newly created and supplied American weapons, under this scenario.

Previously: Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Abbas Sulks A Lot, Fails to Stop Terrorism, Tell Us, President Abbas, How Can We Help You Today?, White House: Sure Abbas is Powerless, But That Doesn't Mean Israel Shouldn't Give Him Land