Cheats and Liars

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert says Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas must take action.

The moment of truth with the Palestinians is fast approaching, and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will have to "take action" or "all shreds of hope will be lost," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday night on his way back from Russia.

"The problem with the Palestinians is reaching a critical point," Olmert said. "Either Abbas will take courageous steps, or all shreds of hope will be lost." Abbas, Olmert said, must "put his house in order."

What kind of action? Hope of what? Well there are a lot of possibilities, but this article gives very few clues.

Referring to both the Palestinian and Iranian issues, Olmert essentially said that he is not opposed to compromise, but at a certain point there comes a time when there is a need to fish or cut bait.

He said that even the Qataris, whose foreign minister, he said, was quite far from Israel's position, had come to the conclusion during the attempts to get Hamas to change its policies that they are "cheats and liars."

The policies are recognition of Israel, an end to attacks, and adherence to previous agreement.

That a fellow Arab country should come down on Hamas that way shows that Hamas has been much more liberal with its false promises and double dealing than is usual even for Arabs. (Jeeze you would think I was talking about American Indians in 1870 - the cause is the same Tribalism)

Olmert talks as if he believes the train is leaving the station and another one ids not due for decades if ever. We know that the train is the Peace Train. The question is: what are the consequences of not getting on it.

One thing we do know is that the political - wing military wing fiction is over. Israel is making the Palestinian politicians responsible for their behaviior and the behavior of their countrymen. If they cannot control their country they will be deemed not to have one.

Update: 20 Oct '06 1159z

A newspaper from Qatar gives its view.

“We made bets and had expectations that the West and especially the European Union would give us a chance to address our cause through politics, and we believed that the Arab world would be our supporter.” Since its rise to power, tensions between Hamas and Fatah have deepened, boiling over into violence. At the same time, efforts are underway to try to form a unity government that might manage to end the clashes and get sanctions lifted.

Evidently Hamas is not getting the support from the Arab world it hoped for and sanctions are biting.

Gaza is breaking into warlordism. Tribalism gone wild. Loyalty to the family, clan, tribe is taking the place of loyalty to a nation. They are returning to a state of nature. How uncivilized.