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Bringing Abbas Back to Gaza Not a Good Idea
by Khaled Abu Toameh
• August 21, 2014 at 5:00 am
A third
reason Abbas still does not trust Hamas is the revelation this week that that
the Islamist movement had planned to overthrow his regime in the West Bank.
Even if the Palestinian Authority were to return to the Gaza Strip, Hamas,
Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups would not disappear.
This is
precisely what Hamas wants, a weak Palestinian authority that would manage
the day-to-day affairs of the Palestinians and pay salaries to tens of
thousands of employees, while the Islamist movement and its allies continue
to smuggle weapons and prepare for the next war with Israel.
Such a
scenario would only strengthen Hamas: it would absolve it of it
responsibilities toward the residents of Gaza Strip by laying the burden on
the Palestinian Authority.
Those who believe that the reinstatement of the Palestinian Authority
[PA] in the Gaza Strip would destroy or undermine Hamas and end rocket
attacks on Israel are living under an illusion.
The talk about restoring PA control over the Gaza Strip was first raised
during the indirect cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas in Cairo.
The Egyptians made clear during the talks that they would like to see PA
President Mahmoud Abbas and his forces reassume control over the Gaza Strip.
One proposal called for deploying security officers belonging to Abbas's
"Presidential Guard" along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
The Egyptian proposal has won the backing of the U.S. Administration,
many European governments and some Arab countries, including Jordan, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Abbas, who lost the Gaza Strip to Hamas in the summer of 2007, has thus
far refrained from publicly commenting on these reports.
The Beheading of James Foley and Other Unintended Consequences
by Shoshana Bryen
• August 21, 2014 at 4:30 am
Both the
president and Mr. Kerry took pains to sever ISIS from the religion of Islam.
But ISIS speaks precisely in Islamic terms and holds itself out to be
authentic Islam.
The goals
of Hamas and the goals of ISIS, to create a society on its own principles --
"ugly, savage, inexplicable, nihilistic and valueless evil," to
quote Mr. Kerry -- are the same.
There is a reason the American military asks of its civilian commanders,
"Don't tell us what to do, tell us what you want done." Giving the
military an executable military mission to accomplish is the most important
responsibility of civilian command. A strategic plan helps the military
respond quickly to the unintended consequences that result from every
mission, without sliding into incremental and often unplanned escalation.
President Obama has dispatched up to 800 American soldiers and
authorized more than 90 air strikes with a general idea of our
"humanitarian" responsibilities, not our strategic interests. (That
did not work too well in Libya.) Mr. Obama even characterized as
"humanitarian" U.S. air support for Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi
troops to prevent ISIS from controlling the Mosul Dam.
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Thursday, August 21, 2014
Bringing Abbas Back to Gaza Not a Good Idea
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