Hamas, Fatah fight a proxy war

The US has taken sides in the Palestinian civil war:

JERUSALEM, Jan. 5 — The Bush administration will provide $86.4 million to strengthen security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expanding U.S. involvement in Abbas’s power struggle with Hamas, documents showed Friday. — Reuters

But Hamas isn’t taking it lying down:

JERUSALEM, Jan. 6 — …Hamas warned Mr. Abbas that he was making a mistake and that it would resist any effort to disband the group, known as the Executive Force. The Hamas Interior Ministry immediately announced that it had plans to double the size of the Executive Force to 12,000 men and called on Palestinians to join it. — NY Times

Recently, Hamas has been bringing large amounts of money into the Gaza strip to fund its struggle with Fatah. It’s generally thought that much of it is coming from Iran.

One wonders how long it will be before these expanded militias will turn their American and Iranian guns on Israel.

Technorati Tags: ,

Comments are closed.