[McClatchy/Miami Herald] Warren P. Strobel and Dion Nissenbaum - Hamas outmaneuvered everyone else and seized Gaza in a swift military campaign that vanquished Fatah forces loyal to Abbas. Abbas, with U.S. encouragement, responded by dissolving the Hamas-led government and declaring emergency rule. Now, with Palestinians divided into two mini-states in Gaza and the West Bank, mediating a peace deal with Israel will be harder than ever. The strategy toward Hamas was overseen by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and carried out largely by Elliott Abrams, a leading neoconservative in the White House, and Assistant Secretary of State David Welch. At its heart was a plan to organize military support for Abbas for what opponents of the strategy feared could have become a Palestinian civil war. As recently as March, Jordanian officials developed a $1.2 billion proposal to train, arm and pay Abbas' security forces so they could control the streets after he dissolved the government and called new elections. While U.S. officials were involved in developing and presenting the plan, a State Department official described it as a Jordanian initiative. Ultimately, congressional concerns in Washington and Israeli objections kept any significant military aid from being delivered, even as Israeli intelligence and the CIA warned that Hamas was becoming stronger.
2007-07-06 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive