Hamas Burns Church In Gaza City
CAPTAIN ED
The Hamas coup has freed the Islamists to do what they do best -- terrorize non-Muslims. Hamas militants burned the Latin Church in Gaza City and went on a rampage at the Rosary Sisters School, while Fatah decided that the occupation in the West Bank has its good points after all:
"Fatah leaders have appealed to Israel to halt security measures against Fatah gunmen in the West Bank and promised to continue their massive crackdown on Hamas there, Palestinian Authority officials here said on Sunday.
The appeal was delivered to the government via US and European officials who met with several Fatah leaders here in the past few days, the officials told The Jerusalem Post. ...
Leaders of the Christian community in the Strip expressed deep concern over the fate of the Christians living under Hamas. They said most of them wanted to leave the Gaza out of fear for their lives. An estimated 2,500 Christians live in Gaza City.
Abbas condemned the attack as barbaric and despicable, and blamed Hamas militiamen."
Fatah needs the Israelis on their side if they start a bloody battle with Hamas in the West Bank. For one thing, the IDF controls the territory, and Fatah risks getting their own people killed by conducting militia operations without Israeli coordination. They also need the Israelis to at least cooperate to the extent of sharing intel, if not actively fighting Hamas themselves.
Abbas has issued a series of directives outlawing Hamas militias. Stating that they had contributed to an armed revolt, Abbas directed that anyone belonging to or assisting them would get punished in accordance with the law. So far, Abbas has been careful not to outlaw Hamas altogether, apparently preferring to keep his political options open. However, after kicking out all of the Hamas ministers from his cabinet and ignoring the Hamas-led assembly, he has created a de facto ban on Hamas political activity as well.
This has led to even more heated -- and ridiculous -- political rhetoric. A Hamas official in Gaza accused Abbas of a 'constitutional coup', apparently oblivious to their own military coup last week. In response, a Fatah official in the West Bank scoffed at the notion that Abbas should account himself to an assembly run by the organization that conducted military operations against the Palestinian Authority, and warned other Arab nations to rid themselves of radicals or risk the same fate as Gaza.
In the meantime, Hamas will continue its campaign against Christians in Gaza. One of their subsidiary groups threatened to "target all Crusaders" in Gaza, including in their homes "as they sit intoxicated". They claim to want a formal apology from the Pope before they'll stop, but even if that came, they would simply find another excuse to commit murder and mayhem. When they run out of Christians, they'll start working on Muslims that do not fully comply with their strictures, until Gaza becomes a ghost region.
Israel doesn't need to kill them all; they're going to wind up doing that to themselves.
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