Death Of The Two State Solution?

[qalam]

Is the situation in Gaza the end of the Roadmap for Peace?


Last week's developments in Gaza culminating in Fatah's defeat by Hamas resulted in the formation of two Palestinian governments, one led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza and the other by Fatah's Salaam Fayad in the West Bank. Call it a nightmare, a fiasco, fragmentation, but not temporary, as all the vital signs indicate that the political partition of the West Bank and Gaza is a fait accompli, unlikely to reverse short of an all-out

Israeli military invasion and reoccupation of Gaza.


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF20Ak04.html

 

[qalam]

This is a well written piece about the situation and theway it is perceived in the West.

As far as the Israelis and Americans are concerned, there is no difference separating al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. For a casual observer of Middle Eastern affairs, the scene in Gaza over the past week looked very much like al-Qaeda - armed and masked gunmen on video, reading phrases from the Koran and dwarfing their religion by pointing their guns, in the name of Islam, against their countrymen.

These people declared that an Islamic state was now in place in Gaza, and stormed offices and institutions held by the secular Fatah movement, destroying them, killing off members of Fatah, and insulting current President Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor, the founder of Fatah, Yasser Arafat (who ironically started out his career as a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood).


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF19Ak05.html