Posted on 01/07/2009 9:26:58 AM PST by mojito
A rally held here on Tuesday in solidarity with the Gaza Strip drew about 150 protesters. Similar demonstrations in other parts of the West Bank over the past 11 days have also attracted small numbers of Palestinians.
As the demonstrators in this city's central Manara Square chanted slogans condemning Israel as a "Nazi state" and calling on the Arabs to severe their ties with Israel and on Fatah and Hamas to join forces, shopkeepers did not shut their businesses to participate in the rally.
Nor did many passersby heed the protesters' appeal to join the rally. At the Stars & Bucks café overlooking the square, young men and women smoked water-pipes, sipped cappuccino and exchanged jokes, totally ignoring the protest and the graphic images broadcast on Al-Jazeera via an LCD screen hanging on the wall.
The general atmosphere in this city was not different from other places in the West Bank. While the overwhelming majority of the Palestinians in the West Bank continue to express their full solidarity with their brethren in the Gaza Strip, they have not gone a step further by resorting to widespread violence against the IDF and settlers.
In fact, the feeling here on Tuesday was that many Palestinians related to the war in Gaza as if it were happening in another country.
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been separated for nearly two decades now. Most Palestinians living in the West Bank have never been to the Gaza Strip. Similarly, only a few Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have ever set foot in the West Bank.
Even when there were no Israeli-imposed travel restrictions, there was almost no interaction between the two communities. Although they may be united politically, the Palestinians in each area have always had different traditions and attitudes.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
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They don't want a bloody nose...??
[...delivered courtesy of EAGLES firing HELLFIRE]
Justa thought...
Bingo. Fatah can’t wait to get rid of Hamas. They took their power, and are making it hard for the Palestinians to make any gains. Plus there were all those killings and infighting between Fatah and Hamas.
Crush them Israel, and strip Gaza bare of every weapon they have, and then block them up from any other trade. Israel can control humanitarian aid and legitimate commerce just fine.
for later ...
Yep. Not that Fatah wouldn’t like to see both sides damaged. But political control means payola and they miss it.
Because no one is paying the leaders of Fatah enough to make them induce their followers to commit suicide?
Old saying:
When two of your enemies are to fight, offer to hold their coats...............
All of the protesters are in the US now?
All of the protesters are in the US now?
All of the protesters are in the US now?
Ah geeze... Three posts for the price of one. Hope I’m not called upon to point a gun at anyone today, with a trigger finger like that...
Fatah hates Hamas. Israel hates Hamas. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is an Arab proverb....
(I’m not saying Fatah and Israel are friends, I’m saying that Fatah supporters will be pleased if Hamas is destroyed, no matter who does it)
And yet the foreign policy einsteins insist on cobbling them together in some sort of weird consortium of a two-piece sovereign state.
It seems obvious: there is no reason for Gaza to exist as a separate territory. The inhabitants need to be relocated to Jordan and/or Egypt and the miserable Strip annexed by Israel. If they ever do recognize Israel they can have some of the WestBank and some of the rest of Jordan.
And maybe Hamas is not so strong and liked there. It’s strength in Gaza may be because it used force and threats to win the election and that has not been possible in the West Bank.
Also... the Gaza factions have the tunnel system and the sea for smuggling arms.... not so easy in the West Bank....
Thanks for the feedback...
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