Palestine is burning with internal feuds now. After an unconstitutional call by Abbas for elections, Hamas reacted in characteristic manner. The international community and Israel are to blame for the move by Abbas. They have cruelly withheld the aid (and in Israel's case, Palestinian money) forcing further misery on already miserable people. This naturally led to large-scale public uproar which Abbas is trying to cash-in on. Palestinian people are sure to sympathize with Hamas. But economic and livelihood realities always trump any ideological concerns and people may be willing to vote for Fatah in case of elections.

In all this drama the biggest losers, as always, are the Palestinian people.

Incidentally, this is a nice article by Gideon Levy tearing to pieces the common supposition of a model Israeli judicial system that is a lone beacon of hope for Palestinians. He finds them as reprehensible as successive Israeli administrations. Analyzing the 11-year Supreme Court presidency of Aharon Barak, he talks about how the court under Barak's presidency or following his legacy essentially legitimized many Israeli crimes. A very thought-provoking article.