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Pinochet's ghost in Gaza?

Today brings news that Fatah and Hamas have declared their 5th cease-fire - this week! The carnage continues in Gaza and one must wonder what the Palestinians think is to be achieved by all this in-fighting. Certainly it has afforded the Israelis an unfettered dream run to yet again attack certain sites in Gaza and target individuals said to be terrorists. No one has stepped back to ask by what right Israel should be permitted these extra-judicial executions.

Tony Karon, writing in The Rootless Cosmopolitan [as reproduced on truthout] puts forward a position and revelation about all of this not normally read or revealed elsewhere:

"There's something a little misleading in the media reports that routinely describe the fighting in Gaza as pitting Hamas against Fatah forces or security personnel "loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas." That characterization suggests somehow that this catastrophic civil war that has killed more than 25 Palestinians since Sunday is a showdown between Abbas and the Hamas leadership - which simply isn't true, although such a showdown would certainly conform to the desires of those running the White House Middle East policy.

"The Fatah gunmen who are reported to have initiated the breakdown of the Palestinian unity government and provoked the latest fighting may profess fealty to President Abbas, but it's not from him that they get their orders. The leader to whom they answer is Mohammed Dahlan, the Gaza warlord who has long been Washington's anointed favorite to play the role of a Palestinian Pinochet. And while Dahlan is formally subordinate to Abbas, whom he supposedly serves as National Security Adviser, nobody believes that Dahlan answers to Abbas - in fact, it was suggested at the time that Abbas appointed Dahlan only under pressure from Washington, which was irked by the Palestinian Authority president's decision to join a unity government with Hamas."

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