Palestinians wait Saturday to cross to the Israeli side at the Erez Crossing, in the northern Gaza Strip (AP photo by Wissam Nassar)
This is a picture that headlines of The Jordan Times on-line. The tone of the newspaper today is far more 'settled' than one might expect. I believe the country of Jordan is feeling good about the change in Palestine authority. The question of course is now best to assure the well being of the people in Gaza currently occupied by Hamas and their revolutionary militia. To provide any 'monies' to Hamas is a mistake, but the EU feels it's a necessary aspect of the survival of the people there:
EU to keep paying Palestinian government salaries in Hamas-controlled Gaza (click here)
By Reuters
A European Union aid program plans to continue making subsistence payments to tens of thousands of Palestinian government workers and pensioners in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, EU officials said on Sunday.The EU payments may be one of the only financial cushions for Gazans after Islamist Hamas seized control of the territory in fierce fighting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.Israel and the United States want to isolate Hamas - economically, diplomatically and militarily - in the Gaza Strip, while allowing funds to flow to the Western-backed emergency government set up in the West Bank by Abbas.
The EU needs to reconsider it's position in that monies may not reach the people it's intended to reach. To realize the actions of Hamas are an attempted coupe against an internationally and anticipated Palestinian government is to realize the deaths in Gaza are acts against the Palestinian people. Those that may have voted for Hamas may indeed be among those attacked by the Hamas militia.
Hamas wakes up to grim reality (click here)
ANNETTE YOUNG IN JERUSALEM
"GAZA is becoming the Mogadishu of the Mediterranean," said one Palestinian official who refused to be named. "People thrown off the rooftops of 10-storey buildings, Palestinians shooting other Palestinians at point blank, others shot in front of their families. So Hamas is in control but do they really think people won't forget what has happened given our culture of pay-back and revenge?"
Yesterday, as locals awoke to the reality of a Hamas-controlled Gaza, people were beginning to count the cost of last week's fighting. Some shops began opening, university students returned to classes and people nervously left their homes for the first time in five days.
With Israel having closed the Erez and Karni border crossings, and Egypt having done the same with the Rafah crossing (the Rafah crossing is long known for it's smuggler tunnels), Gaza is effectively sealed off from the rest of the world, with its 1.5 million residents having no choice in the past week but to stay in their homes as gun battles raged on the streets outside.
The tone of the occupation of Gaza is taking on a serious nature of which no one needs to apologize in that Hamas has victimized it's own people to gain control, temporary control, of a strip of land that belongs to Palestine. This reality has been in the works for a long time. However, the people of Palestine never bargained for a Hamas controlled reality which would cost them their lives. The people now occupying Gaza have committed crimes against those citizens in an attempt to overthrow their government. They must be held responsible. There are reports that the Fatah leaders that remained in Gaza have fled for their lives to Egypt. Even when Hamas dominates the authority in Gaza they are still willing to kill legitimate government officials there.
Around 100 Fatah security and administrative officials flee to Egypt (click here)
Close to 100 Palestinian officials from the moderate Fatah group of President Mahmoud Abbas crossed into Egypt from the Gaza Strip in the early hours Friday, Egyptian police said.
Hours later, the Egyptian security delegation in Gaza also returned to Egypt after failing in its mediation efforts between the warring Palestinian factions, said an official at the Rafah border crossing.
The Egyptian border official said the delegation chief, Col. Burhan Hamad, and five other members were heading to Cairo.
Fleeing aboard a fishing boat on the Mediterranean sea, 97 senior members of Fatah's security and administrative apparatus arrived in the Egyptian port of El-Arish hours after fighters from the militant Hamas group took control of Gaza, an Egyptian security official in El-Arish said.
The retreating Fatah members were transferred to camps affiliated to Egypt's security forces, a police official in Cairo confirmed.
Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
I want to add my voice to any that feels as though it is time for legitimate government for Palestine while recognizing violent extremists and their ability to charade as a concerned government authority; when in fact they were simply seeking 'a chance' at killing and coupe. This is a difficult reality for those involved in the Middle East Peace Process to learn as they have long attempted to 'include' as factions of populous in the region for representation rather than continued violence. That is not realistic and at this point I strongly feel Israel is deserving of an apology for it's unpopular position over the years. Israel knows without a shadow of a doubt the violence the extremists have planned when the circumstances permit it.
The Abbas government is the only legitimate authority of the Palestine people and has survived a well executed coupe. It is up to President Abbas to now lead Palestine in recognition of the atrocities that occurred to the people there. With so many fleeing I doubt that will be difficult. Hamas is contained, but, is yet to be dealt with. I can only hope the people in Gaza will receive humanitarian aid until the militia turns itself over to Palestinian authorities. I don't see any other option is realistic in the face of all those murders by Hamas. I won't change my mind regardless of how it might transpire in attempting once again to legitimize those involved in this coupe. If the region does not deal harshly with the violence and murders of Hamas in Gaza then same will continue without abating in all of the region. We have already noted the return of Katyusha rockets from Southern Lebanon (click here) in celebration of occupied Gaza.
This is the time the region needs to recognize Hamas for what it is and provide a clear understanding to all extremists they have a chance to participate in peaceful governance or suffer at their own poor judgement. To tolerate Hamas is to give permission of more murder. I just don't see it, especially in the face of the reality there was concerted effort by Fatah to include all of Hamas while demanding prisoner releases and the like. Abbas never betrayed the people of Hamas, yet none of those efforts matter. They are jaded and won't let go of the pain of the past long enough to see the hope of the future.
