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Palestine chronology since January 2006
By
Joyce Chediac
Published Jun 24, 2007 10:54 PM
The Abbas-Dahlan clique within Fatah has allowed itself to be the agent of a
U.S.-Israeli planned coup against Hamas, designed to topple the unity
government. Hamas’ military moves in Gaza this month were defensive
actions to prevent that coup. Here’s how it went.
January 2006: To the shock of Tel Aviv and Washington, 80
percent of the Palestinian electorate vote for Hamas, for a substantial
majority in the Palestinian Authority Parliament.
February 2006: A program attributed to U.S. Deputy
National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams calls for giving Fatah guns,
ammunition and training, and getting them to fight Hamas for control of the
Palestinian government. Abrams is known for getting funds to Nicaraguan contras
in the 1980s and covering up massacres and atrocities committed against
civilians in El Salvador by U.S.-backed militias and death squads. (Asia Times,
May 16; Conflicts Forum, Jan. 7; electronicintifada.net, June 14)
January 2007: The Bush administration announces plans to
give $86 million to “fortify Mr. Abbas against armed assaults from
Hamas.” The security program “reflects the basic sense in the
[Bush] administration that the only way to change things is through
confrontation.” (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12)
Much of these funds were earmarked for “unaccountable militias,
particularly the ‘Preventive Security Force’ headed by Gaza warlord
Mohammad Dahlan, a close ally of Israel and the United States and the
Abbas-affiliated ‘Presidential Guard.’”
(electronicintifada.net, June 14) Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor of the
British Observer, called Dahlan “the man widely credited with beginning
the cycle of violence in Gaza” (June 17).
February 2007: Hamas and Fatah, in an agreement brokered
in Mecca by Saudi Arabia, form a national unity government that will place
their militias under the control of a neutral interior minister. However, Abbas
and Dahlan refuse and continue to amass weapons (Conflicts Forum, Jan. 7)
At that time, a senior Hamas official said of Dahlan, “This man has been
involved in the American-backed plot to topple our government.”
(Jerusalem Post, Feb. 14)
In addition to supplying guns, ammunition and training to Fatah forces to take
on Hamas in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank, by this time the U.S.
government had arranged for the training of a large number of Fatah military
personnel at camps in Ramallah and Jericho, in the Israeli-occupied West
Bank.
May 2007: “Israel this week allowed the Palestinian
party Fatah to bring into the Gaza Strip as many as 500 fresh troops trained
under a U.S.-coordinated program to counter Hamas. ... The troops were trained
by Egyptian authorities under a program coordinated by Lt. Gen. Keith W.
Dayton, a special U.S. envoy to the region.” Additionally, the U.S.
government “approved $40 million to train the Palestinian Presidential
Guard, a force of about 4,000 troops. ... Although it is under Abbas’
authority, the Presidential Guard is run by Mohammed Dahlan.” (Washington
Post, May 18)
Israeli paper of record Haaretz publishes on May 4 the full text of another
U.S. plan, “Benchmarks for Agreement on Movement and Access,” which
details deadlines for Israeli dismantling of roadblocks, with Mohammad Dahlan
drawing up and implementing a security plan to stop Qassam rocket fire into
Israel—code words for suppressing Hamas. The forces under Dahlan must be
deployed to “problem areas no later than [the] date” of June 21.
(Asia Times, May 16)
June 2007: With this plan and date as a backdrop, senior
Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip ask Israel “to allow them to receive
large shipments of arms and ammunition from Arab countries, including
Egypt.” This includes “armored cars, hundreds of armor-piercing RPG
rockets, thousands of hand grenades and millions of rounds of ammunition for
small caliber weapons.” (Haaretz, June 7)
Laila el-Haddad, a writer for Aljazeera.net, said while waiting to pass through
the Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt on June 7 that she saw “several
hundred and thousand” Palestinian troops enter Gaza. (democracynow.org,
June 15)
In a preemptive move, in mid-June Hamas took control of Fatah’s national
police headquarters, the border crossing with Egypt, the Preventive Security
headquarters, Fatah’s intelligence services, the Presidential Guard
offices, and media. While Fatah forces were more numerous and better armed,
they were demoralized and offered little resistance.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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