Understanding Hamas and Fatah

There were interesting developments in the Gaza area this weekend. Hamas has taken total control of the Gaza strip. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dissolved the government and declared a "state of emergency"!

But who are the Hamas? To bottom-line it for you, they are a particular branch of Islamic Jihadists who are bent on the destruction of Jerusalem. (This development is particularly alarming since they will be strategically placed in Israel's back yard!)

Joel Rosenberg in his blog (located HERE)recalls the historical foundation for this shift in power...

"In the summer of 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted on a unilateral withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza saying the occupation wasn't working and the Israeli people were tired and ready to come home....such a bold move would be a sign of goodwill, Sharon insisted, to the Palestinian people and the entire Arab and Islamic world, evidence of Israel's goodwill and desire for peace....but even close allies of Sharon -- chief among them Bibi Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky, both of whom were serving at the time in Sharon's cabinet -- warned that such a unilateral withdrawal would be read by Israel's enemies not as a sign of goodwill but as signs of weakness and surrender....Gaza would not become a model of peace and prosperity, they cautioned, but the scene of a full blown civil war that could give rise to "Hamastan," a deadly new base camp for radical Islamic jihadists....sadly, that is exactly what has happened....with at least 113 Palestinians dead so far and hundreds more wounded in raging street battles between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas now appears to have gained full control of the Gaza Strip....there have been reports that Hamas commanders are executing Fatah leaders in front of their families."

No wonder their name "Hamas" in Hebrew means "violence!"

Here is additional information concerning the two factions.
(Thanks to Wikipedia for this info.)

Fatah:
Fatah is a major secular Palestinian political party and the largest organization in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a generally secular multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the center-left of the spectrum. It is mainly secular and nationalist although not predominantly socialist.

History
The movement, which espoused a Palestinian nationalist ideology in which Palestine would be liberated by the actions of Palestinian Arabs, was founded in 1958 or 1959 by members of the Palestinian diaspora - principally professionals working in the Gulf States who had been refugees in Gaza and had gone on to study in Cairo. Yasser Arafat was head of the Palestinian student movement in Cairo from 1952 to 1956. Fatah became the dominant force in Palestinian politics after the 1967 Six-Day War.

Hamas:
Since the death of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, (who was of the Fatah party) Hamas's political wing has entered and won many local elections in Gaza, Qalqilya, and Nablus. In January 2006, Hamas won a surprise victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, taking 76 of the 132 seats in the chamber, while the ruling Fatah party took 43.

History
Founded in 1987, Hamas was the Gaza Strip branch of the Pan-Arab (Sunni) Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement founded in Egypt. Hamas is opposed to the existence of Israel and has denounced the 1993 Oslo Accords, the foundation of the failed peace process, as a "betrayal of God's will".

Hamas regards the territory of the present-day State of Israel — as well as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — as an inalienable Islamic waqf or religious bequest, which can never be surrendered to non-Muslims. It asserts that struggle (jihad) to regain control of the land from Israel is the religious duty of every Muslim. Hamas does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state, unlike the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which has recognized it since 1988, and calls it the "Zionist entity", a common hostile term in Arab political rhetoric. Its charter calls for an end to Israel. During the election campaign, Hamas did not mention its call for the destruction of Israel in its electoral manifesto. But several Hamas candidates insist that the charter is still in force and often called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" in campaign speeches. On January 25, 2006, after winning the Palestinian elections, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar gave an interview to Al-Manar TV denouncing foreign demands that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist.[27] After the establishment of Hamas government, Dr Al-Zahar stated his "dreams of hanging a huge map of the world on the wall at my Gaza home which does not show Israel on it, I hope that our dream to have our independent state on all historic Palestine (including Israel). This dream will become real one day. I'm certain of this because there is no place for the state of Israel on this land". He also "didn't rule out the possibility of having Jews, Muslims and Christians living under the sovereignty of an Islamic state, adding that the Palestinians never hated the Jews and that only the Israeli occupation was their enemy".