Israel reaction to Fatah's proposal

Israel's Policies Assassinate Jews, Too:

"The irony is that the Israelis inadvertently started this last best hope for peace themselves, by putting Hamas and Fatah members together in an Israeli prison. There the prisoners worked out a document outlining a plan for peace. The Hamas signers said they would accept IsraelÂ’s existence, as long as it ended all occupation and settlements in the West Bank as well as Gaza, withdrew inside its pre-1967 borders, and recognized the rights of the Palestinians who had been ousted from Israel. Public opinion polls show that at least three-quarters, and maybe 90%, of Palestinians support this plan. If the Hamas party signs on to it, Hamas popularity will soar.

Then Israel would no longer have any major force denying its right to exist. The international pressure on Israel to accept the plan would be immense. That raises the prospect of an Israeli government having to dismantle not just a handful of little settlements, but whole Jewish towns that have been erected in the West Bank. The political fallout might well tear the Israeli public apart, posing nearly impossible dilemmas for any Israeli government.

So Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government must prevent Hamas from supporting the prisonersÂ’ document. The Israelis have to make sure that the Palestinians remain politically divided, with one faction denying IsraelÂ’s right to exist, in order to keep Israel politically united. Israeli leaders are willing to pursue that goal at any cost -- even the cost of more Jewish lives.

ItÂ’s an old story. Over the years of its political maneuvering, Israel has followed one principle faithfully: keep the opposition divided. Indeed, years ago Israel was instrumental in establishing Hamas in order to prevent Yassir ArafatÂ’s PLO from gaining a total monopoly on political power in the Occupied Territories. Now somehow, anyhow, the Israelis have to keep Hamas divided, so that it cannot unite behind the prisonersÂ’ document that Fatah has so fully embraced."

This is not news, anyone who has paid attention to Israel actions (as opposed to Israel's statements) in the last twenty years knows that this is just the way Israel conducts itself. What is new is that this shatters the illusion of those who thought that the new government Israel was any different than Sharon's.