The latest truce between Hamas and Fatah has fallen apart, with 6 Palestinians killed in Gaza on Thursday and dozens wounded. I spoke to a source in the Israeli security services and asked him about it. For obvious reasons I’m not giving his name:
FresnoZionism: Abbas and Haniyeh have both called for quiet. The fighting is certainly not helping either side, not to mention the civilians caught in the middle. Why are they fighting?
Source: These groups aren’t organized, not even militias. They’re hamoulas, groups of relatives and friends. And they’re fighting for control of neighborhoods, for graft, for revenge. They’re like street gangs.
FZ: The US is supporting Fatah with weapons and money. Can they defeat Hamas and assert their control?
S: I doubt it. The United States has never learned that you don’t win by supporting unpopular warlords. The Palestinians see them as mercenaries working for the Americans.
FZ: Do they see Hamas as less corrupt?
S: Anybody that isn’t aligned with either side hates and is afraid of both of them. Both sides are corrupt — Fatah just has more money.
FZ: Is the fighting hurting Israeli peace efforts?
S: Neither side wants peace with us — they both have the same goal, to destroy Israel, although they are following different strategies. As far as I’m concerned, I’m happy they’re busy. The more they shoot at each other, the less they shoot at us.
A sensible and sound analysis. The news- reporting is misleading in that it makes it seem as if all the fighting is between two major ideologically opposed factions. In fact as this piece indicates much of it is violence between various clans. In other words the breakdown of central control is much worse than ordinarily depicted.
I do not want to pretend to be ‘over- righteous’ and it is true that if they are busy with each other they will be less able to devote themselves to attacking us- but on the human level this is sad and deeply troublesome situation. These are our neighbors.