Alone at the Dance
Victimhood. The Palestinian Authority is in disarray and decline. Abbas ducked elections in Gaza that were scheduled for July 17. Hamas opposes a negotiated peace with Israel, but it is filling the void left by the PA. It provides health and education services, exploiting popular revulsion over the PA's corruption in siphoning off vast amounts of the aid donated to the Palestinian people by the international community.
Abbas's strategy has been to present himself as a victim. His desire is that this will take the heat off him to confront terrorism, in the hope that the international community will force Israel to make still more concessions to help him out. But Israelis rightly ask: What's the point of strengthening a leader whose popularity is plummeting, who cannot or will not exert control over terrorists, and who has proved incapable of carrying out his promises?
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is determined to proceed with the disengagement despite the fact that the postponement of the Gaza election means Israel does not know the full extent of Hamas's political strength there, leaving open the risk that it may be transferring territory to enemies who will seek to destroy Israel.
The sad fact is that everything is going wrong. Terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are using the relative calm to rearm and regroup for the next intifada. They smuggle longer-range missiles through dirt tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, for use after disengagement against Israelis now across the fence.
Sharon has taken a huge gamble with the Gaza withdrawal. But instead of playing weak, Sharon plays strong, determined to complete the disengagement. How sad that there is no comparable leader on the other side, someone with a vision of what a Palestinian state might be and with the courage to save the Palestinian Authority from being a fig leaf for an increasingly anarchic terrorist state.
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