Ahh.. the Palistinian question..
One which has plagued the world for decades.. since the establishment of the State of Israel..
A focus.. around which the Arab Community can build a wall of inherited hatred..
Much the same, and the Roman Catholic and Protestant divisions in Ireland.. but in Ireland one didn't have the added factor of inter-tribal feudes which have spanned literally centuries..
Effectively..the political situation is that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed the Hamas-led coalition government and declared a state of emergency...
Not from the seat of government in the Gaza Strip though, but from the West Bank..
Now in the Gaza Strip itself, the Prime Minister, whom had been dismissed with the rest of those holding governmental seats.. is still in power..
Hamas controls Gaza.. Fatah controls the West Bank..
Now heaven forbid anyone mention the term 'civil war'..
As a sidebar.. the Israeli Ambassador to the UN said that as far as his country was concerned, this was a Palistinian issue, and they had no plans for military intervention.. But they would be building up a military presence above Gaza, to at least try and minimize the expected increase of rocket attacks from the south, now the Islamic Hamas movement was in charge..
Hamas.. Fatah.. all the myriad of groups and sects which fall in between the two factions.. each with a conviction that can only be called zealotry..
It's their 'human condition'.. of having always survived in an environment only a few decided to change, to settle down and choose fighting the desert to grow, rather than wandering one's tribes territory in a nomadic existence..with their faith, and their own ethics and honour..
The effect Israel had on the region was cataclysmic.
The Kibbutzim turned the desert into proper farmland.. bringing with them emmigrants from all over the world who were skilled.. who had elements of hundreds of various societies to bring with them, but with one burning desire, to be Israeli above all else..
The Westernisation of a piece of the Levant was not without it's struggles.. but it did make a fundamental change to the lives of the Palistinians.. It brought the present in contact with a society that had not really changed in millennia..
Therefor.. it had to have been expected that a coalition Palistinian Government would fail.. One which through coalitions, was actually in power in Parliament.. One which was Islamic, not democratic in nature..
The schism was a certainty..
One wonders how long it will be for Palistinian President asks either the UN.. the US.. or perhaps Israel itself, to roll over Gaza from north to south, and re-establish control.
Now Mahmood has a problem..
Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Hamas was in total control of Gaza, adding that the crisis had wider implications.
"What is happening now is not only the collapse of the Palestinian national unity government but actually the collapse of the whole Palestinian Authority,"
He has called for 'General Elections' to be held as quickly as possible.. but lets be realistic..
The thought that lingers in the mind.. that bothers one at night.. is, that while we acknowledge the entire Middle East is as volotile as Krakatoa.. There is some pattern to all of this..
More thought need be given this..
But ponder this for a moment..
That we in the West.. are being directed from one Middle Eastern or Asian country to another..
From Iraq.. to Afghanistan.. to Palistine.. to Iran.. to Pakistan.. the Sudan..et al..
All in the same of 'The War On Terror'..
It's odd that States the likes of The UAE.. Saudi Arabia.. Libya..
Never mentioned at all..