The Real Coup Plotters

Those who denied the results of the Palestinian elections did the damage.

Here is how democracy works in the Alice in wonderland world of Palestinian politics under the tutelage of the United States and the international community. After years of being hectored to hold elections and adopt democratic norms, a year and a half ago Palestinians duly elected Hamas with 44 percent of the vote, ahead of Fatah on 41 percent.

It was a good election as the former U.S. President, Jimmy carter, observed at the time, a free, fair and accurate expression of the desires of a Palestinian people sick of the uselessness, corruption, and gangsterism of Fatah. The problem was that it didn’t quite reflect the wishes of Washington and the international community.


And while there can be no denying that Hamas, which refutes the existence of Israel and has baked suicide bombings, is a threatening organization, there was no attempt at engagement, in the way that Fatah, whose militants have perpetrated scores of attacks, has been engaged with for years.

Now, after the months of financial embargo of the Hamas-led government by the U.S. and Europe, after the funding and propping up of Fatah’s president Mahmoud Abbas, after the slow, crushing squeeze on Palestinian society that encouraged its social disintegration, what have we got? Virtual civil war in gaza, the polarization of Palestinian society, a government dissolved by decree, and a new Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, appointed with the explicit blessing of the U.S.