(Hudson Institute-New York) Khaled Abu Toameh - The U.S. administration, which just forced Israel and the Palestinian Authority to enter direct peace negotiations, seems to have completely forgotten about Gaza. The Americans know that for now Gaza is a lost cause, so they pretend the problem does not exist. If the Obama administration is hoping that a peace deal might prompt Hamas and the residents of Gaza to seek a similar deal, they are they are being naive; on the contrary, such a deal would only increase Hamas' determination to step up its efforts - with the help of Syria and Iran - to scuttle the peace process. Abbas and his Fatah faction fled Gaza just over three years ago, handing it over to Hamas. As soon as Hamas started shooting in the summer of 2007, Abbas' forces and loyalists either surrendered or ran away. Abbas' seaside headquarters has been turned into a Hamas detention center, where many of the president's loyalists are being held and tortured at the hands of the Islamist movement. There are doubts as to whether Abbas would even be able to impose, or sell, a peace agreement to many of his constituents in the West Bank, particularly those living in refugee camps. So if Abbas cannot even visit Gaza and has limited control over the West Bank, where is he supposed to implement a peace agreement? In downtown Ramallah? The Palestinian and Israeli negotiators and their U.S. sponsors are continuing to ignore the facts on the ground - namely that a radical, Iranian-funded Islamist state already exists - in Gaza.
2010-09-17 09:09:31Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive