Friday, December 22, 2006

I Agree With Olmert

Now there is a real surprise.

I believe Olmert's policy of not responding to the Palestinian Arab rocket attacks on Israel at this time is a good policy. Why would I take such a position? The answer is obvious if you have been watching the Palestinian Civil War unfold.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Office said that the terrorists were trying to provoke an Israeli response in order to unify the warring Hamas and Fatah factions against the IDF.
I think a Palestinian Civil War is in Israel's interest. The civil war needs to be well established before Israel acts. Another few weeks or a month should do it.

However, some of the other reasons given are nonsense.
The officials further said that a response would give more support on the street to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and weaken Abbas.
What is needed is the weakening of all sides. A civil war will do that.

Update: 22 Dec'06 1825z

More fighting between Palestinian factions.
A brief but ferocious gunbattle between Hamas and Fatah militants broke out in Gaza City early Friday, underscoring the fragility of a two-day-old truce between the rival factions.

The street battle, which encompassed the house of Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas and the Gaza residence of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, died down after about 20 minutes as Muslim clerics and other mediators worked to restore the cease-fire. Abbas was not in Gaza at the time.
Haaretz has a report on West Bank violence.
Gunmen loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah opened fire on Hamas members in the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, wounding at least nine people, hospital officials and witnesses said.

At least one of the wounded was said to be in very serious condition.

They said the gunmen opened fire as about 200 Hamas activists and armed men were preparing for a rally in the city of Nablus. There was no immediate comment from Fatah.
Israel Matzav has a different view on what Olmert should do.

Here are some of my recent posts on the Palestinian Civil War:

Palestinian Civil War Watch - 0
Palestinian Civil War Watch - 1
Palestinian Civil War Watch - 2
Palestinian Civil War Watch - 3
Palestinian Civil War Watch - 4

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree a civil war among the Palesinians is likely a good thing for Israel and the beauty of it is they started going at each others throats all by themselves with no help from either the Israelis or the Americans. I point out that they had no help from either the Aemricans or the Israelis because some people in the anti-Semitic and anti-American media have desparately tried to blame Israel and the US for the situation in "Palestine."

As long as they are fighting one another, they will have less resources to attack Israelis. I also think the US has not been attacked since 911 because of the Iraqi civil war. These civil wars take up alot of enemy resources that otherwise would be used elsewhere.

M. Simon said...

Chuck the Lucky,

Very funny.

Too true.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
M. Simon said...

abraham of hypocalypse.com

Posted the comment of Sun Dec 24, 09:14:53 PM UTC.

He deleted it himself. It was a good comment. Perhaps he will come back and repost it.

BTW this is not an endorsement of the comment or of anything you might find at hypocalypse.com