Overview of Hamas/Israel history

From a comment on Daily Kos:

Let's see:

We insisted on elections.
Hamas (the wrong group) won.
Hamas was told to disarm in the face of
their enemy or the election results wouldn't be recognized.
They refused.
We supported Fatah in an attempted coup which failed.
A blockade was put in place.
Hamas fights back.
Hamas agree to a cease-fire.
Israel left the blockade in place even though it should have been lifted under the terms of the ceasefire.
Even with the blockade still in place, suicide attacks stop, rocket attacks are reduced to a trickle.
Israel's 18 mo blockade has the Palestinian population eating grass.
Israel broke the "cease-fire".
Hamas increased the number of "rockets" shot at Israel in response,
Israel indiscriminately shells, bombs everything/everyone and invades,
an action which was planned months in advance.
Hamas attempt to negotiate another cease-fire.
Israel refuses and continues it's attack of a confined, blockaded, civilian population.

I think I get the picture.

I also note that Hamas would not exist at all without the direct support of
both Israel and the US...ie: they supported a radical Islam group in order
to weaken the secular Fatah (and were successful).
which leads us to where we are now.

deja vu

+++++++++++++++++++

And we could add - they are trying, or have tried, this in other places in the world. For example, it was reported by Sy Hersch that the US (via Saudi Arabia) was arming/funding Sunni extremist groups in Lebanon, and a women connected to a car bombing in Syria claimed she was part of that group and was funded by the US and Saudi Arabia. Group was called "Fatah al Islam" which not the same as Fatah in Palestine. And, a Palestinian refugee camp was destroyed in Lebanon because it was overrun by Fatah al Islam...... and the camp just-so-happened to be near where the US wanted to build an air base. That camp was destroyed (most of the residents had fled) and the world ignored it.

And then there is the example from the 1980's of our funding, arming and training bin Laden's guys in Afghanistan. Look how well that turned out.