The Palestine Tragedy
This past week saw the Fatah Congress being held in the occupied West Bank. This Congress showed the continued schism within Palestine. 400 members of Fatah from Gaza were prevented from attending because Hamas prevented them from doing so. The conflict goes on as the Egyptians are trying to work on a mediation effort. That mediation effort has had no success. The crediblity of the Egyptians themselves is even suspect now as well.
II was especially disappointed when I saw the name of Mahmoud Dahlan mentioned as a potential successor to Mahmoud Abbas. I saw the images of his house in Gaza City after it was taken over by Hamas members. It showed Gold Faucets and a life of luxury. As these "leaders" lived the life, the rest of Gaza suffered terribly. It was Fatah's corruption and incompetence was a key contributing factor to Hamas winning the election and the subsequent schism that developed. If the Israelis come to their senses and release Marwan Bargouti, then things might change. Marwan Bargouti is one of those imprisoned leaders who may have the crediblity to pull things together. But, the Palestinians are weak and divided. The Israelis are continuing their expansion of settlements and building their wall. Despite all the good intentions, nothing seems to have changed at all. That's the biggest tragedy of all.
Mike Pouraryan
