Another Government in Name Only

I've got a lot more reading to do before I understand what's going on in Gaza, but somebody kick me if this doesn't sound about right. After 15 months of sanctions against the democratically elected (but not US approved) Palestinian government in Gaza, during which time Palestinians have endured the kind of humanitarian crisis which only serves to fuel fundamentalist extremism and a "by-any-means-necessary" sense of virtue through terrorism, the US is now ready to lift the sanctions and let aid flow back into the region because the Fatah party of Mahmoud Abbas can't stand up to the militant hardliners of Hamas. This on the condition that Abbas, who's been effectively deposed in Gaza, as far as I can see, establish a new Fatah government that will work with American, European and presumably Israeli interests to soothe tensions and return to the jolly old days of the Oslo accords or something along those lines.

Is the US government officially on crack? At what point did our policy makers fail to see that this is exactly what would happen if we deprived the region of the chance to eat, to earn, and to work progressively toward democratic solutions? To deny the authority of a democratically elected Palestinian government was the first indication to Palestinians that the US had no real intention to deliver democracy to the Middle East. Instead, by imposing sanctions and cutting Gaza and the West Bank off from modern standards of free societies, US policy vindicates those who always assumed that the only answer to a troubled region is a one state solution which takes Israel, America's proxy in the Middle East, off the map.

And what will the US do now? It appears our intention is to prop up a wildly diminished government facade by allowing international aid to reach Palestinians only now that the radical threat presented by Hamas has assumed control of Gaza. Perhaps the US hopes to solidify power in the West Bank, allow the Fatah party to regroup and support a military re-acquisition of Gaza. It smacks of desperation, however, and suggests to me that US decision makers truly do not know what to do now. And we all know what we do when we don't know what to do: stay the course, redouble our efforts, and assure the world at large that we know what we're doing even while all evidence points to the contrary.

UPDATE: This article in the New York Times offers a good take on what Gaza looks like now, and on the likelihood of Palestinian reunification anytime soon.