After Hamas won the election in the Ruritanian Republic of Palestine the incumbent President, Abbas, acting on behalf of the US, refused to cooperate with the newly formed government. Eventually Abbas's Fatah militia attempted a coup. It failed, and the result was complete control of Gaza by Hamas, and an end to the little authority that remained to Abbas.
ITN yesterday referred to these events as a "military coup" by Hamas. Why?
What the British media pretend not to know - Hamas was a pathetic little religious party with hardly any support among Palestinians until the Israeli mass murderer, Sharon, decided to build it up to weaken support for Fatah. Zionist money was lavished on Hamas who spent it on community welfare projects. By this time Fatah, under Arafat, had settled for a virtual Palestinian state controlled by Israel. All the leading Fidayeen had been killed by the Israelis, or had been marginalised by the new men, who had taken no part in the armed struggle, but were determined to win the peace. As corruption became the norm under Fatah, support for Hamas grew and grew. All the western propaganda portraying them as terrorists was wasted on the Palestinians. In fact it was not intended for the Palestinians, for no US or UK goverment was ever interested in Palestinian opinion. Now the Palestinian people have a government vilified by western governments and media. Hamas are "terrorists", so anything that happens to the Palestinians now is of their own doing. Let slip the dogs of war. The world's third most powerful military state feels threatened by its sickly Islamic neighbour. The Hamas fighters will be easily defeated, unlike the better armed Lebanese Hizbullahi fighters. Then the massacres can begin, and we in the West can stand by and watch with a clear conscience.