By Agustin Velloso in Madrid
PalestineChronicle.com

Is there a civil war going on in Palestine? No, but this question and an affirmative answer is what pro-Israeli media are disseminating all over the world. Hence, the average news consumer does not discuss the “reality” of the civil war.

But, are not we seeing that Palestinians are killing each other in Gaza streets?

What we are seeing is that since Hamas took power in the last legislative elections (January 2006), which were monitored by hundreds of foreign observers, Jimmy Carter amongst them, the Western powers have made all kind of political and economic maneuvers to oust the winner with the help of the loser, Abu Mazen and his Fatah party.

However, Palestine is not Iraq, there are no Western armies in Gaza, is it not an internal Palestinian affair?

It is not an internal affair. Palestine is just one more square of the big Middle East cheesboard. The international community plays in it to its advantage, namely: the control of oil and the support of its ally, Israel. The Western powers support Fatah because they say it represents the ‘moderate’ Palestinians and torpedo Hamas because its program does not fit with the Zionist and Imperialist agendas. Once Hamas obtained the majority of the Legislative Council seats, the powerful leaders, Bush, Rice, Blair, Olmert, Solana and others adopted plan B: to oust Hamas from government no matter the price (to be paid by rank and file Palestinians, of course).

What role is the international community playing in the shootings?

Shootings are the last movement in the chess game. Before this movement, the Western countries –allegedly democratic and the guardians of international law- invaded countries, flattened entire cities, bombarded families at weddings and in the beach, and forced Arab and Muslim prisoners in secret flights around the globe to torture them at will and put them in cages like animals.

What movements are you talking about?

They have totally isolated the legitimate Palestinian government, let alone that Israel has declared its members ‘legitimate’ target for its death squads and has kidnapped several of them as well as many members of the Parliament. On top of this political coup d’état, which makes almost impossible the government’s actions, they have used their favorite weapon, the same they have used in Iraq for years on end with the results of half a million Iraqi children dead: the economic blockade. Israel is stealing the Palestinian people the money it collects through taxes and that it has to transfer to the Palestinian government. Banks under heavy pressure have been prevented from managing money transfers from Palestinian supporters.

Finally, when government members have transported by themselves much needed cash into the Occupied Territories, they have been prevented from doing so. All this in order to realize the aims of the rogue State Israel, which in the words of a high official were to make the Palestinians not die, but lose weight through an economic diet. This peculiar sense of humor in politics is reminiscent of Himmler’s, Menguele’s and other learned Westerners.

Still, what is the relationship between sanctions and shootings?

As it happened in Iraq, Palestinians did not overthrow their government. Clearly, they reject this kind of “humanitarian” policies and they are suspicious of Western help and their local delegates. The Palestinian delegate, Abu Mazen, has threaten to dissolve the government, the Legislative Council, has asked for a national unity government and has demanded anticipated elections, all this when hardly some months of  unremitting Israeli aggression have passed since the 2006 elections.

Although Hamas is under no obligation to give up the government, the expression of the Palestinians’ political will, prime minister Hanniyeh made public his intention to resign in order to protect national interests. This is something unheard of, not only in the Arab world but in the Western one as well. Western media, of course, did not pay attention to this offer.

Since things were not proceeding according to the “democratic” plans of the Western powers, they have stepped up their pressure, this time provoking Hamas through shootings and threats of violence.

Hamas’ response is what the same media describe as civil war. The aim of finishing off yet another Arab and Muslim country is almost at hand. Another one in the list: Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia. Almost because hopefully Palestinian people, not only those affiliated with Hamas, will put an end to the violence and force the political parties to come to terms with the real enemy, the Israeli Occupation, and to punish the quislings according to their crimes.

What is going to happen from now on?

There is ample room to be concerned. It has to be taken into account what Western countries –and their main ally, Israel- have been doing for years in the Middle East: the destruction of several countries, the death of millions and the suffering of many others.

The United States and Israel will keep on arming and funding the pro-cup party and its militias in order to sabotage the Palestinian project and foster instead the creative chaos they are so fond of. For Palestinians this means no return of the refugees, the continuation of the Occupation by close or remote control, the judaization of Jerusalem, the continuation of the ethnic cleansing by Israeli policies and the subjugation of millions of Palestinians in their own land. In any case, nothing different of what has been taking place since 1948.

-Agust