What are Hamas doing????

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Just when the war seemed to be over (for now) Hamas has begun an internal operation to retake full control over the territory.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/30/hamas-reprisal-attacks

What kind of government can you expect from this group? The other thread 'Israel vs Hamas' was very heated, and I dont know if we really reached any conclusions, we all agreed that millitary action especially against civillians was wrong. rocket attacks against Israel by Hamas seemed to be supported by some members, but do you support their violence when it is aimed at fellow palestinians?

 

Shoshino,
I am surprised you're surprised.

Palestinian collaborators like Fatah are cooperating with the US and Israel, that is, the very powers that attacked Hamas (directly or indirectly - Israel's disputed DIME bombs were US produced and supplied GPU-39; the US offered diplomatic support) and Gaza in its entirety.

For Hamas Fatah and collaborators is cooperating with the enemy, the occupier - the people who just a few weeks ago killed roughly a thousand and a half Gazans, devastated it's economy and infrastructure. It is a rational reaction for Hamas to attack Fatah and collaborators. For Hamas this crackdown is a matter of survival, and literally about life and death. That doesn't make it good or nice but predictable.

As for Fatah, first there was Fatah's US funded clownish attempt to seize power in Gaza which Hamas crushed. After a phase of simmering hostility, there was another climax in Fatah's telling silence during the attack on Gaza, their crackdown on protests. There is a price to cooperating with the occupier, and for Gazans, and many Palestinians in the West bank as well, Fatah is Vichy now. Hamas merely has to point to the carnage in Gaza and point out with whom Fatah cooperates. That stain on Fatah's reputation among Palestinians is unredeemable. We might see the end of Fatah in the coming years.

PS: If you look at the relative positions of strength and Hamas conditions - namely the restoration of the 1967 borders, then Israel clearly has more to lose, territory in particular. Israel would have to give up all its settlements. The military threat posed by the Palestinians is pathetic, or in the words of Ehud Barak, then prime minister:

That means that Israel, towards the Palestinians sees itself not under existential threat, but in position of strength. Ehud Barak is currently secretary of defence and ordered the Gaza attack. If they are the stronger side, why should they make concessions? What the Palestinians get from Israel is ultimatum after ultimatum, yet they keep fighting.

Neo-conservative icon Jeanne Kirkpatrick once formulated an astute truism, if there can be such a thing:

Here it is applies to both sides. The people who say that Israel wants peace, but that those insane Palestinians insist on murder and slaughter delude themselves about the nature of the conflict. Israel doesn't want peace. Israel wants victory. The problem I see is that Hamas and Israel aren't 'fought out' yet. Both sides can continue the carnage for quite a while, and feel they win more through violence than through peace or compromise. That applies equally to Hamas as it does to Israel. It will get worse when Israel elects Benny Netanyahu, or, horrors, Avigdor Liebermann. Both believe that if they hit only hard enough the Palestinians will eventually accept defeat. That is plain barbaric, and while barbaric tactics at times work, I doubt they will here.

 

Ragusa, this is the nature of most, if not all, dictators. They see anyone who opposes them on any grounds (with support or not) as the enemy engaged in a life-or-death struggle. It could be an old woman in the street saying they're stupid and Hamas's reaction would probably be to eliminate her one way or another (kill, threaten, beat, kidnap, etc.). Hamas's mentality is one that allows no opposition, in a way the US government has never seen, regardless of your love to attack Bush on it. I don't mean to distract this thread, but it is an interesting comparison. Even when the Bush administration was the most defensive and paranoid, they did little more than fire people within the gov't voicing opposition. They didn't hunt down the critical news media and kill them. Hamas does. Is Fatah any different? I doubt it, but this is still not acceptable.

Please note that that quote is ten years old. Does it still apply?

I think you're applying that quote poorly here. Hamas is the one who definitely wants something (the destruction of Israel) more than peace (or even the lives of their citizens it seems). Does Israel also want the destruction of Hamas more than peace, or do they just not trust Hamas to keep peace, I don't know. They have plenty of reason to distrust Hamas. As for the 'barbaric' nature of a final, devastating strike (or an attempt there at), I'm not sure I agree in concept. If it works, it can avoid years of bloody war and countless dead (see Hiroshima and Nagasaki vs a ground invasion of 'mainland' Japan). I agree that it probably won't work here, though. The best bet is probably to assassinate the Hamas heads in ways that appear to be either internal rivalries or accidents/chance. Something that won't raise more ire against Israel, yet will remove the leaders of Hamas.