Israel and the U.S. did not like the results of that 2006 election. They did not like the fact that Hamas won the election fair and square, and gained control of all of the West Bank and Hamas.
In that election Hamas won in such Christian strongholds like Bethlehem, in the West Bank. The majority of Bethlehem's legislative seats went to Hamas.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter headed an international group of monitors to help guarantee the 2006 election's validity.
I attended a meeting of the Palestinian Election Commission the day before the election, at the invitation of President Carter and the Commission chair, Hanna Nasir, then the president of Bir Zeit University.
Hamas won the election in 2006. What followed was a brief moment of hope for a positive Palestinian future.
But what does the U.S. government (the congress and then President George W. Bush) and its Middle East mini-me empirical wanna-be, Israel, do about an election that does not follow the colonial template?
Simple, the U.S. and Israel told the losing political party in that 2006 election, Fatah, that it was time to go to war against Hamas. To help out, Israel locked up, on charges that are still not clear, the majority of Hamas' victorious legislators.
With U.S. Army Lt. General Keith Dayton in charge of training -- bringing with him U.S. money for military equipment -- the Fatah army was organized and sent into battle to accomplish what the voters in the West Bank and Hamas had rejected.
In short, the colonial playbook was followed, take power at the polls if possible, and by military force, if necessary. What followed was not meant to happen. The U.S and Israeli-backed Fatah lost that war as it had lost the earlier election.
Hamas quickly solidified its grip on the Gaza area of the Palestinian territories. Israel promptly surrounded Gaza with its own version of the iron wall. Israel demanded that Fatah set up its own West Bank Palestinian government with Ramallah as its capital.
Maybe that came from a West Point class, "Divide and Conquer" on how best to build an empire. Great Britain perfected the tactic in the Middle East, India and Africa.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has struggled since 2007 to govern the West Bank on its own, always under the watchful eye of the Israelis, who dole out tax money taken from Palestinians and return it to the PA to run its government.
Following the failure of the most recent round of peace negotiations, Fatah invited Hamas to join in a unity government.
That sounded promising. But it did not fit the colonial template. Thus followed the latest "grass mowing" Israeli exercise, and many children like those above, continue to suffer.
A "cease fire" to this current conflict could happen at any moment. But then what? Does Israel think the tunnels will not be restored? Of course, they will be restored. Or maybe another and more effective method will be developed to fight the occupation.
Israel is indeed surrounded by Arab states which do not think Israel is a good neighbor in the region. At some point in the future these states may find ways to assist Hamas.
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