Discussion Divas

Palestinian Upheaval: Hamas, Fatah explained

In the last two weeks, one of the two main political forces in the Palestinian territories—Hamas—seized control of the Gaza Strip, violently ousting Fatah, the other powerful political faction.

 

Gaza is one of two Palestinian territories nestled alongside Israel. The other, the West Bank, is still controlled by Fatah.

 

 

After the seizure, President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and leader of the Palestinian Authority, dismissed the unity government and its prime minister, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, and named an emergency government.

 

 

The United States and the European Union then threw its support to Abbas, unleashing millions of dollars in aid to Fatah, which had been frozen since last year when Hamas won control of their Parliament.

 

Hamas explained, briefly

HAMAS is an Islamist militant group that was founded in the Gaza Strip in 1987. Its charter calls for the destruction of Israel and seeks a Palestinian state that would include all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

 

 

The group has conducted hundreds of suicide and other attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers since the late 1980s, and is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU, among others. However, Hamas also provides crucial social services in the Gaza Strip, operating schools, healthcare clinics, and cultural programs, making the group popular among residents.

 

 

Fatah explained, briefly

FATAH is a political group with military offshoots. It seeks to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza but recognizes Israel’s right to exist. Former Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat founded the group as a faction within the PLO. The group later formed the core of the Palestinian Authority, which in the 1990s was established to govern the occupied territories and move them toward statehood.

 

Ideologically Fatah is generally socialist and relatively secular, but regarded by many as corrupt—one reason Hamas won control of the Parliament last year.

 

The big picture

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas are set to meet next week to discuss the situation in Gaza. And some are hopeful that their talks could set the Palestinians on a path toward eventual statehood. However, Hamas and Fatah—each now controlling half of the Palestinian territories—have very different ideas of how a state would look, making a historically complicated situation all the more challenging. 

What you need to know about Darfur now

Finally some relief could be headed to Darfur.

 

The latest news is that Sudanese government has agreed to allow in a hybrid peace-keeping force made up of the African Union and the United Nations. It seems a good time to review what's happening in this area ravaged by genocide.

First, a background on Sudan
It's important to realize that Sudan has long been a country with civil unrest, with uprisings against the government dating back to the 1950s by groups wanting more of a role in government, to secede or to escape Islamic law. There have been two major civil wars since 1972. A peace accord was brokered in the last war, in 2005, but not before a separate conflict began in Darfur in 2003.

What you need to know about what's happening in Darfur

• Darfur is an area located in the Western region of Sudan, Africa ʼs largest country. The area is about the size of France.
  
• Much of the area is inhabited by non-Arab Muslims, whereas the Sudanese government is controlled by Arab Muslims. Tension between these groups is at the root of the violence. 
  
• For years the government ignored basic needs of the area, where famine and drought led to a lot of suffering.
  
• In turn, rebel groups made up of non-Arab Muslims organized against the government, which retaliated by supporting rogue, especially violent militia groups called the Janjaweed, which have been responsible for raping and terrorizing the people in the area for years.
  
• The conflict has left over 2 million people displaced and an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 dead, escalating into one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

The big picture
The United Nations has been working for months to send more troops to Darfur, which Khartoum, the capital of Sudan , has denied until now. The government wants to maintain control of the nation’s borders, which it will do under the agreement.

 

And while the addition of more peacekeeping troops (up to 19,000) is welcomed as a step in the right direction, African Union troops are under-funded and poorly equipped, which may render them largely useless in such a daunting situation. Let’s hope for the people of Darfur this breakthrough truly can bring some relief. Troops are targeted to arrive in October.

 

You can help:
Save Darfur
Genocide Intervention
Rock the Vote: The Instant Karma | Save Darfur Campaign

Don’t point those things at me

We’re talking missiles here, in a spat that’s reminiscent of Cold War tension.

What’s happening?
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to point missiles at Europe if the United States moved forward with plans to build a missile defense shield near Russia. [By defense shield, we’re talking futuristic Star Trek-type technology to shoot down missiles. By the way, no one knows if this will actually work.] Two days later, tensions rose when President Bush suggested that democratic reforms in Russia had been “derailed.”

Then, they all made nice at the G-8 Summit
Putin offered to build a shared shield system in Azerbaijan (one of the former Soviet Republics addressed in the WeeklyDIVA, “Lessons from Borat.”). Bush called the plan “interesting” and did not outright reject the idea. Putin seemed to back down from his plan to point missiles at Europe.

Other takeaways
Also on the agenda at this year’s meeting of the world’s richest countries: global warming and AIDS. The U.S. says it will consider a European plan to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% by 2050. And lastly, the group pledged $60 billion to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa.

By the way, what is the G8?
Since 1975 the world’s economic powerhouses have met yearly to address world economics and issues. For many years it comprised seven countries, until Russia joined in 1998. The Group of Eight (G8) is made up of the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan and Russia. Each year a different leader acts as president of the group, and his or her country hosts the annual get-together. German Chancellor Andrea Merkel—the only woman among them—led the crew this year.

The big picture
Averting a Cold War-like missile standoff could help ease tensions between the United States and Russia, but already experts say the proposal will likely fall short of what the United States wants from a defense system. The global warming piece is a big deal because it is a step toward replacing the Kyoto Protocol, the last major global climate change initiative set to expire in 2012, which the United States never agreed to abide by anyway.