The New Foreign Policy by Neack Laura;

Author:Neack, Laura;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Democratization and War

Let’s continue with the narrative and then add some additional conceptual material to understand the dynamics of the case. The Hamas-Fatah political struggle continued in the Palestinian territories, sometimes eclipsing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There were some indications that the Palestinian territories were moving to incorporate democratic institutions by 2005 and 2006. In January 2005, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah was elected to the Palestinian presidency in an election that Hamas supporters boycotted. Then the Bush administration decided to push for broader legislative elections in order to demonstrate its commitment to democracy promotion in Arab lands—and as a counter to the democracy promotion demonstration of the Iraq war. Israeli and Fatah officials had misgivings about holding the elections because Fatah wasn’t “ready.”[9] Afterward, Bush administration officials came to the same conclusion.[10]

In January 2006, elections were held for a Palestinian legislature. Hamas won 76 seats in the 132-seat body; Fatah won only 43. At the start of 2006, the new government was sworn in. In April, the United States and European Union cut financial assistance to the PA, and Israel suspended payment of tax and customs receipts that it collected for the PA. In late June, Hamas gunmen from Gaza launched a raid into Israel and took hostage a young Israeli soldier. Three days after that, Israel invaded Gaza. Within a few more days, Hezbollah rocket strikes into Israel from Lebanon provoked Israel into invading Lebanon. This war in Lebanon continued for another month. In November 2006, Israel declared a cease-fire in Gaza and withdrew its troops.

In the meantime, the Bush administration was dismayed about Hamas’s electoral victory and conspired with Fatah to get rid of the Hamas government. The plan involved two parts: Abbas would find a way to dismiss the Hamas government, and then when violence erupted in protest, Fatah security forces would overrun and destroy Hamas. Fatah would do this using covert military aid given to it under a special initiative run by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams. The administration had told Congress that it was only supplying nonlethal aid to Fatah, but this was a deception.[11]

The chief Middle East advisor to the US vice president later described what happened as “an attempted coup by Fatah that was pre-empted before it could happen” by Hamas.[12] In the middle of June 2007 in a series of pitched battles, Hamas took over Gaza, leaving the West Bank to be controlled by Fatah. That June marked the period now called the Palestinian civil war, but armed confrontations between Hamas and Fatah forces continued afterward albeit at a low level. Various efforts to reconcile the two were attempted and failed. Israel and Hamas continued their own hostilities, and these escalated into two more Gaza wars in December 2007–January 2008 and November 2012. At the cease-fire that ended the November 2012 Israeli-Hamas/Palestinian war, Hamas and Fatah attempted to reconcile.

Let’s bring back in some conceptual material. Fatah’s Abbas apparently tried to form unity governments with Hamas even as Fatah’s security personnel were arming against Hamas.

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