Who to cheer for? Decisions, decisions...

This little piece of Palestine and the big piece of Palestine have decided to be separate entities: Hamastan and Fatahland. Jules Crittenden, looking at the fighting, can't figure out for the life of him *who* to cheer for. Why it was just a short 18 months or so ago that Hamas had *won* the prize... the booby-trapped prize... of Leading Palestine!

Why I even sent them a congratulatory note, in their grand and absolutely unexpected victory in Palestine!

Here is just a bit from that little note to them:

Do note that the new shirts handed you as the leaders of Palestine feature large bulls-eye targets painted front and back in day-glo colors. Wear them proudly as Fatah did so that you could more accurately aim at them.

Also note the keys of state come with strings attached. As most Western aid is predicated on peaceful negotiations with your neighbors, including Israel, you will need to amend your party documents to account for that. Otherwise you will get zero aid from the US, Japan, UK, Australia and even possibly such stalwarts as France, Germany and Russia. Or you can keep your prized concept of a one-state Palestine and forego foreign aid. And govern without it.

I am sure the vaunted industrial sector of Palestine will soon...... you may want to look into this as I don't believe that Palestine *has* an industrial sector, beyond terrorism and bomb-making, and there is not much Return on Investment in those areas, save as targets for Israeli bombs and munitions.

As you start to assess the situation you may have patted yourselves on the back, collectively, for thinking that you had pulled the wool over *everyone's* eyes in Palestine. I mean you must think the electorate there is as dumb as doorknobs to elect Hamas to try and Govern them!

Unfortunately they may be a bit brighter than that as you have been handed the booby-trapped prize of actually leading Palestine. It is a ticking bomb that you cannot, however much you may want to, explode inside Israel. Notice the few seconds that are left on the clock.

You have very little time.

Do you see? Much praise and even warning them of some problems with their economy! Even better with THIS decision they have now made they have found a way to END their need for Western aid! Why, that is so highly inventive of them, to stage a coup in the Gaza Strip, so as to seal themselves off from outside aid *and* demonstrate their independence. Plus add the distance of Israel between themselves and Fatah, of course.

Of course Fatah has done the absolutley correct thing in distancing themselves from Hamas, proclaiming themselves to be Moderate Terrorists, and then putting out the hat for Western aid. And, of course, I warned Hamas of this very same problem in my note:

Also note that decades of Arafat and Fatah rule have left the State of Palestine and the elements of what government there is riddled with cronyism, nepotism and petty thieves and crooks masquerading as public servants. Please do try and clean house as many of those same officials are looking eagerly at the aforementioned shirts you have been given. But not covetously. They have a glint in their eyes that you may remember from your time in the opposition. And they do want to protect what little graft they can now get, and siphon yet more money away from the State... The State you are now in charge of. So give it a go... clean house... try and *discharge* as many of these individuals as you can finger... ummmm... find... and ask them to peacefully evacuate their posts. Many of them have, doubtlessly, done so already, and cleaned out their desks, filing cabinets, lockers, arms caches, training manuals, and numbers to their Swiss bank accounts.

Now that Hamas has isolated itself *outside* the seat of power in the Gaza Strip, Fatah can now walk right back in, plop down their rolodexs, and pick up the phone... and find out the lines are dead. Then they flip out the cellphones they bought in Israel and get back to business. Because Hamas has, indeed, discharged its duties as well as many, many, many rounds of ammunition, grenades, rockets and such like, to show just what sort of entity it is.

Now some folks on the Left like to say how Hamas and Hezbollah are 'legitimate armed political parties' or even 'popular armed political parties', which is a very nice way of saying that they are organized thugs able to coerce their way into power. This, too, I had warned them about in my note:

Your charitable works you have always vaunted as actually *doing* something for the Palestinian people, and might have been enough to convince people you might be worth having around. You may find it is easier to run a few hospitals and many terrorist cells than it is to Govern a State, even a wretched excuse of one as Palestine is at present.

Also note that all of those wonderful handbooks on AK-47's and Kyatusha Rockets contain very little information on Public Diplomacy. Somehow most states fall out of the range of those weapons, and yet those very same states can reach out and touch *you* most vigorously.

The primary worry of Hamas at this point in time is that of its brand-spanking new neighbor: Egypt. In point of fact the Gaza Strip has exactly TWO Nations it borders: Israel and Egypt. And as Hamas is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood and that is banned in Egypt, that latter may not like suddenly having the armed wing of it as a neighbor. While Egypt is no great shakes on the military front, it is far more organized than Hamas and could easily flatten the Gaza Strip in a week or so. They will not do so because it is full of Palestinians, so the folks inside Gaza may just find it a bit hard to get re-supplied. But Hamas has, at least, finally ended the debate about a One or Two Nation objective!

Yes they have decided on TWO Nations!

TWO PALESTINES!

Because they actually HAVE found a way to get what I pointed out they needed in my note to them! Really! This part did give some admonishment to them on this score:

And, finally, once you figure out which is more important to you... One State in the Lands that may or may not have been Palestine, but were certainly run by the British and held by the Ottomans (wherefore are thou Palestine?) or trying go govern an unruly set of people that have been lied to, threaten, beat up, tortured, killed, abused and generally maltreated by your predecessors for decades. If you try to address the first one first, your life expectancy will be counted in days, if not hours. If you vigorously decide that trying to bring some order to Palestine just *might* be important, then you will have to figure out how to do so without triggering a civil war. One that you had been preparing for, oh these many years, and expected to start... as the opposition. But you are in charge now. And if it starts while you are in charge... well... it is usually the ruling group that gets it the hardest in these things. Check your history books for details. (You folks do *have* history books beyond recounting the injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people, right?)

So in closing, let me wish you Good Luck with your new found majority status. And Good Luck in dealing with your newfound Loyal Opposition. And Extreme Good Luck in cleaning the House of State of all of the Corruption that has infested it over the years. And Plentiful and Bountiful luck in figuring out if you really stand *for* anything in Palestine. And Especial Good Luck in trying to do all of this while trying to square the circle of your political beliefs, your neighbors and foreign donations to your little plot of land on the Planet Earth.

Good Luck.

You will need it!

Hamas has, indeed, chosen its plot of Earth!

At the rate they are going it may be the largest graveyard on the planet before they are done... but no one ever said anything about a *good* solution....

Innovative? Yes!

Good? Not so much, no.

Seeing as how this is the rightful decision of Hamas, choosing guns over butter, so to speak, there really and for true is only one thing to do with the place:

Anyone who wants to leave can be processed outwards, sign documents to renounce ALL RIGHTS ON ISRAEL, that they will never take up terrorism nor encourage anyone else to upon immediate pain of death if caught doing so *anywhere* on the planet, and then be allowed to go either to Fatahland or to any other Nation that will take them.

Because I have had it with the decades of whining from Palestinians on this score and they have now amply demonstrated that they have no legitimate claim to *anything* as they cannot even govern THEMSELVES. Time to put an end to these squabbles, once and for all.

And *why* will these people be leaving Hamastan?

Because the one thing that the West can and should do is to stop all delivery of food and just supply lots and lots of bullets. No grenades, no mines, no C4, no TNT, no fruit juice, no baby formula, no meat, no bread, no potatoes, no water.

Just bullets for the lovely AK-47s that are all around the place. Once the heavier munitions run out then all that will be left are folks with AK-47s and a dwindling supply of food.

Hamas has chosen the graveyard.

Let us help them make it for themselves as death is all they ever wanted, so they can now inflict it upon themselves.

The wise will flee.

The terrorists have made their bed and it is time to tuck them in.

And let them turn out the lights as they leave.