Power Struggles

Hamas continues to wage war against Israel, and Israel has struck back, killing eight Hamas fighters, including Hamas's commander for the central region of Gaza.

The rockets keep hitting Israel, and Haniyeh calls the Israeli raid a criminal massacre. Well, what do you expect when terrorists go up against a professional military? It's a far different matter than when you get terrorists fighting with other terrorists or they attempt to kill Israeli civilians with rockets. Israeli forces used a combination of ground assaults and airstrikes to take out those responsible for some of the recent rocket attacks.

Hamas is also continuing to fight Fatah's efforts, including administration of Gaza:

Meanwhile in Gaza City, meanwhile, some 400 Fatah civil servants were prevented from entering their offices as part of the power struggle between the moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank and the Hamas rulers of Gaza. The territories have been functioning as separate entities since Hamas seized Gaza by force last month.

The Hamas-dictated work week in Gaza runs from Saturday to Wednesday, with Thursday and Friday assigned as the weekend. Salam Fayyad, the new Palestinian prime minister, recently announced the Palestinian work week would run from Sunday through Thursday, as it does in Israel.

Hamas forces on Thursday barred people from entering government offices, saying they were closed because it was the official weekend. Most Palestinian civil servants are loyal to Fatah.

"We told them that the government in Ramallah announced new weekend days but they said the people in Ramallah are not the government," said Imad, 40, who works at the public works ministry, and refused to give his last name for fear of Hamas retribution.

"We are not coming on Saturday because its the official weekend. This is the beginning of the battle against the coup government in Gaza," he said.

Abu Dajana, a Hamas security officer, said the orders of the "legitimate government" in Gaza would be implemented.

On Wednesday, Gaza government employees loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah collected their first full salaries in 15 months. Civil servants who sided with Hamas' bloody takeover of Gaza were not paid.

So what would American presidential candidates do with the situation in Gaza? Well, the Jerusalem Post posts the responses they received.

Hamas continues to threaten anyone who attempts to cross into Israel at any of the crossing points. That's surely a humanitarian thing to do, isn't it? [ed: that's sarcasm for those challenged by such notions]

However, the possibility that Hamas could take over the West Bank seems remote. That's good news in a sea of bad.

To that end, and in the pseudorealists attempt to bolster Fatah, the list of 250 Fatah to be released is being drawn up:

The list that was compiled will go through further security screening, and the final list will be coordinated with the political echelon.

The final list will be divided into prisoners that were tried in military court or administrative detention, and prisoners who were tried in civil court.

The releases of prisoners tried in the military court will need the signature of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and the release of civil prisoners will need the signatures of Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and President Shimon Peres.

And can someone explain to me why Alan Johnston feels the need to visit Fatah's Abbas in the West Bank to thank the Palestinians for their hospitality because it was another group of those same Palestinians who were behind his kidnapping and 16 week captivity.