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Source: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_4025678
End of Illusions
[Salt Lake Tribune] Rich Lowry - Anyone who imagined that leaving Gaza would transform Palestinian politics or Israel's security for the better has watched those comforting notions sink after the election of a Hamas government to run the PA, rocket attacks into Israel, and a crisis over the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. The hope was that withdrawing from Gaza and creating a security fence around the Palestinian territories would basically allow the Israelis to wash their hands of the Palestinians. Except Palestinian radicals can routinely jump the security fence, in the form of the Kassam rockets they are pouring into Israel from Gaza. If Israel were to pull out unilaterally from the West Bank, major Israeli population centers would be within Hamas rocket range. Roughly speaking, Palestinian politics is dominated by terrorists - as represented by Hamas - and corrupt, terrorist-enabling incompetents - as represented by Fatah, the late Yasser Arafat's organization. Pity the Palestinians if Fatah is their best hope for rational government.