U.S. missteps led to Gaza crisis
Baltimore Sun
McClatchy-Tribune
July 8, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Officials in the Bush administration awoke on the morning of Jan. 26, 2006, to catastrophic news.
Hamas, a violent Islamist movement whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, had won Palestinian parliamentary elections - elections that were deemed free and fair and a cornerstone of President Bush's initiative to bring more democracy to the Muslim world.
For the next 17 months, White House and State Department officials would undertake an all-out campaign to reverse those results and oust Hamas.
Instead of undermining Hamas, though, the strategy helped widen political fissures in Palestinian politics that have delivered another setback to the president's vision of a stable, pro-Western Middle East.
The administration's drive to change the political facts in the Middle East foundered on opposition in Congress, the differing goals of allies such as Saudi Arabia, and an inability to provide Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with the backing he needed to confront Hamas.
Three weeks ago, Hamas leaders outmaneuvered everyone else and seized the Gaza Strip in a swift military campaign that vanquished secular Fatah forces loyal to Abbas. Abbas, with U.S. encouragement, responded by dissolving the Hamas-led government and declaring emergency rule. Now, with Palestinians divided into two mini-states in Gaza and the West Bank, mediating a peace deal with Israel will be harder than ever.
(The article is here.)
McClatchy-Tribune
July 8, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Officials in the Bush administration awoke on the morning of Jan. 26, 2006, to catastrophic news.
Hamas, a violent Islamist movement whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, had won Palestinian parliamentary elections - elections that were deemed free and fair and a cornerstone of President Bush's initiative to bring more democracy to the Muslim world.
For the next 17 months, White House and State Department officials would undertake an all-out campaign to reverse those results and oust Hamas.
Instead of undermining Hamas, though, the strategy helped widen political fissures in Palestinian politics that have delivered another setback to the president's vision of a stable, pro-Western Middle East.
The administration's drive to change the political facts in the Middle East foundered on opposition in Congress, the differing goals of allies such as Saudi Arabia, and an inability to provide Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with the backing he needed to confront Hamas.
Three weeks ago, Hamas leaders outmaneuvered everyone else and seized the Gaza Strip in a swift military campaign that vanquished secular Fatah forces loyal to Abbas. Abbas, with U.S. encouragement, responded by dissolving the Hamas-led government and declaring emergency rule. Now, with Palestinians divided into two mini-states in Gaza and the West Bank, mediating a peace deal with Israel will be harder than ever.
(The article is here.)
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