NY Times: Fouad Ajami on the Hamas-Fatah Split
In a New York Times Op-Ed, Fouad Ajami, journalist and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, had some hard-hitting things to say about what brought about the current Palestinian situation and points out the fallacy of those who suggest this new situation is an opportunity for bringing peace to the region:
Some see this as a tolerable situation, maybe even an improvement, envisioning a secularist Fatah-run state living peacefully alongside Israel and a small, radical Gaza hemmed in by Israeli troops. It’s always tempting to look for salvation in disaster, but in this case it’s sheer fantasy…
…It is idle to think that Gaza could be written off as a Hamas dominion while Fatah held its own in the towns of the West Bank. The abdication and the anarchy have damaged both Palestinian realms. Nablus in the West Bank is no more amenable to reason than is Gaza; the writ of the pitiless preachers and gunmen is the norm in both places.
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