And just how likely is a, "secular, democratic, " Palestine with Hamas?
http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html Certain sectors of the left, in their more than justified rage at Israeli repression, find it difficult to ask tough questions about the whole, wide range of the opposition. (Like a CISPES member I argued with over whether or not, Roque Dalton, http://www.google.com/search?q=Roque+Dalton+CIA+agent+Joaquin+ [ [PDF] 136.142.158.105/LASA98/OConnell.pdf ... help of a CIA agent, left with untreated ... to have murdered poet Roque Dalton and comandante Ana ... edu/theoretikos/Marzo98/joaquin.html>. 23 Endnotes ... Text version - Similar pages ] the communist poet was a "CIA agent." http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Roque+Dalton+Joaquin+Villalobo s+&btnG=Google+Search http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/5.22/991111-salvadoran.html (http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/organization/lenin_in_context.htm Enemies of the ERP had spread malicious lies that Dalton was a CIA agent. Eduardo Galeano wrote, "We always meet death in a way that resembles us. I always thought Roque would meet death roaring with laughter. I wonder if he could have. Wouldn't the sorrow of being murdered by those who had been your comrades been stronger." )
Why can't some leftists recognize complexity? Use the skepticism they hone, rightly, against the Ruling Class and it's minions, to the agit-prop and cant of Our side?)
A book I skimmed a bit of recently, by Barry Rubin, on Palestinian politics (sectariana trivia, in the late 60's he was in SDS and wrote for the [NY] Guardian) that to my surprise endorsed a two state solution and getting rid of the settlements, has useful histories of the PLO, PFLP, DFLP, Hamas, Islamic Jihad. http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/reading.html
Michael Pugliese http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/08 /MN151198.DTL Arafat considers Hamas pact Guerrilla group's popularity soaring among Palestinians Dan Ephron, Boston Globe Saturday, September 8, 2001 ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Gaza City -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's administration is discussing a power- sharing proposal with Hamas, the radical Islamic group behind a wave of suicide bombings against Israelis, Palestinian officials say.
Mediators have drafted an outline for such an agreement which, broadly speaking, could restrict Arafat's ability to maneuver in future negotiations with Israel but could also give him the power to limit Hamas attacks against the Jewish state.
Ziad Abu Amr, an influential Palestinian lawmaker who helped draft the outline, says that both sides have responded favorably and that more serious negotiations are due to begin next week.
Yet officials in both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority refer to formidable obstacles that must still be overcome, and observers offer varying opinions about the prospects for power-sharing. The two sides differ on how to deal with Israel and how to shape Palestinian society.
Hamas, which polls show gains more support with every attack it stages, is a religious group that advocates Israel's destruction and seeks to create an Iran-styled theocracy in a future Palestinian state. Arafat's Fatah party, the dominant political force in the Palestinian Authority, is secular and more pragmatic, having reached a series of peace deals with Israel in the past eight years.
But mere talk of sharing rule with Hamas, a group once considered marginal in the West Bank and Gaza, reflects a shift in Palestinian politics. Nearly a year into the fighting with Israel, Hamas' popularity is soaring, while Palestinians view Arafat's administration as clumsy and corrupt.
The discussions also highlight a quiet debate under way in Hamas itself between some leading figures who want to translate the group's recent successes into political power and others who prefer that Hamas remain mainly a guerrilla group for now.
"Hamas is more powerful in every respect than ever before, and the Palestini an Authority can no longer ignore the group," said Abu Amr, a key mediator in the contacts between Hamas and Arafat's administration.
"If you're aiming to preserve the current political order, you have to find a way to include them. It would lend legitimacy to Arafat's government," he said, adding that Arafat has always been reluctant to relinquish power.
The attempt to work out a power-sharing agreement is certain to irk some Israelis and vindicate others who have long asserted that Arafat and Hamas were working in tandem.
Arafat and the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, are poised to meet next week for another attempt at ending fighting that has claimed at least 700 lives.
Yigal Carmon, a retired colonel in Israel's Military Intelligence branch who served as an anti-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers in the 1990s, said Israel would take a very grave view of such a partnership.
"Strangely enough, we have Arafat's own people shooting, and that's not enough to go to war, but once they are aligned with Hamas operationally, sitting together and planning operations, when that happens, this will be a casus belli," or pretext for war, he said.
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 8