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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061801365.html?hpid=topnews
"West Bank First": It Won't Work
[Washington Post] Robert Malley and Aaron David Miller - Having embraced one illusion - that it could help isolate and defeat Hamas - the Bush administration is dangerously close to embracing another: Gaza is dead, long live the West Bank. It is premised on the notion that Fatah controls the West Bank. Yet Fatah has ceased to exist as an ideologically or organizationally coherent movement. Behind the brand name lie a multitude of offshoots, fiefdoms and personal interests. Most recent attacks against Israel were launched by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the unruly Fatah-affiliated militias, notwithstanding Abbas' repeated calls for them to stop. Given this, why would Israel agree to measurably loosen security restrictions? We should not be fooled by Abbas' rhetoric. Sooner or later he will be forced to pursue new power-sharing arrangements between Hamas and Fatah and restore unity among Palestinians.