Finding lessons in Gaza's bloodshed

A Good Comment
By Ramzy Baroud
Asia Times

"......The second Palestinian uprising of 2000 can be seen as a revolt against Israel and its occupation, but also against those who did its bidding among Palestinians - the shameful legion of Palestinians whose wealth grew to unprecedented levels as the great majority were steeped further in poverty.

Such shamelessness fostered support for Hamas among ordinary Palestinians, and in January 2006, Hamas swept the polls, to its own surprise and the surprise of many. The elites and wealthy few had espoused a society that was governed by brutality, nepotism and favoritism and was unabashedly managed with the help of Israel. Hamas was the only serious alternative: its anti-corruption record and the tough fight it displayed against Israel made it deserving of the responsibility from the ordinary Palestinian's point of view......

I think there was enough determination on both sides to prevent a civil war at any cost, thus the agreement in Mecca. However, US officials entrusted with ensuring the failure and collapse of the unity government and the utter corruption among Fatah's self-serving security circles made good intentions simply extraneous......

Israel is committing itself to ensure that the friction among Palestinians will destroy their national project in the West Bank as well. Fatah will now be allowed to do what Israel has failed to do over six decades of occupation......

First, Gaza has exposed, like no other experience in modern history, the hypocrisy of the US government's democracy charade......Second, corruption, although temporarily rewarding, is never lasting, and the people, although forgiving and patient at times, have the ability to withstand pressure, to prevail and force change, even if violently. Third, proxy politics is most harmful, in Palestine and elsewhere.

Palestinian leaders must learn that selling one's political will to foreign polities for the sake of money, power or political substantiation is unforgivable in the eyes of ordinary Palestinians.......

Gaza might have descended into chaos for a few weeks or months, but so also has the US agenda championed by the remnants of the neo-conservative clique in the administration of President George W Bush, which stubbornly fails to operate outside the parameters of the doctrine of violence, secrecy, conspiracies and military coups.
They refuse to knowledge that it is not weapons that Palestinians want. It is simply freedom."