shoot-outs & payouts

The Toronto Star leads with the IDF raid in Ramallah in which 4 Palestinian (alleged civilians) were killed and 20 wounded No word on the status “civilian” of those wounded though Ynet News is reporting 6 dead and 18 wounded.

But if you ask me the real slaughter was between Hamas & Fatah in the northern Gaza Strip (Toronto Star account):

In the northern Gaza Strip, a senior Palestinian security officer allied with Fatah was killed when Hamas militants laid siege to his house, engaging in a protracted gunbattle with his guards and then attacking it with grenades and a dozen rockets, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. The officer, Col. Mohammed Ghayeb, was the chief of the Preventive Security Service in northern Gaza, and his death was expected to trigger revenge attacks.

Moments before his death, Ghayeb was on the telephone to Palestine TV appealing for help as his house in Beit Lahiya came under attack. "They are killers," he said of the Hamas gunmen. ``They are targeting the house, children are dying, they are bleeding. For God's sake, send an ambulance, we want an ambulance, somebody move.''The battle outside the house raged for much of the day and killed four of Ghayeb's guards and a Hamas gunman. About three dozen people, including eight children, were wounded.

Apparently, PA Chairman Abbas is demanding a $5 million payout from Israel for compensation to the damaged to Ramallah shops and cars by the IDF. No word whether he will include Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade as a co-defendant in his claim against the Israeli state nor whether he intends to pursue a suit against Hamas. And since turnabout is considered fair play, I really hope there is an Israeli bean counter in ministry building busy calculating the cost of the Kassam rocket fire on the Sderot so the claim against the PA can go forward in short order.

While Hamas and Fatah are battling it out on the streets there is a bigger picture that is being overlooked. Just how exactly is Israel to make peace with a people who cannot even keep the peace among themselves? The only time there seems to be a resemblance of unity between Palestinians is when they are otherwise engaged in the planning or executing plans to kill Jews which hardly seems like a feasible rationale on which to base or establish a state.