[Peace-discuss] US likes the violence in Palestine

[C. G. Estabrook]

"The US clearly pushed for a confrontation between Fatah and Hamas, so 
much so that, a week before Mecca [where the two factions met in 
February 2007 and under the auspices of King Abdullah agreed to a unity 
government] the US envoy declared twice in an envoys' meeting in 
Washington how much 'I like this violence,' referring to the near civil 
war that was erupting in Gaza, in which civilians were being regularly 
killed and injured, because 'it means that other Palestinians are 
resisting Hamas.'"

--Alvaro de Soto, UN Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace 
Process, in the final report he wrote before resigning in May 2007; 
Hamas won a democratic election in January of 2006 but didn't exactly 
benefit from the Bush administration's brave attempt to bring democracy 
to the Middle East.

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