"JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Sunday it had begun
transferring to the Palestinians some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in
tax funds it had frozen for 17 months, hoping to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas
while isolating Hamas."
While I think Israel needs to work with Abbas and support him in an effort to undermine Hamas I have doubts about handing over this much cash. The first question is how how much of that is going to be used on weapons against Hamas and for how long. Hamas and Fatah are brothers after all, and their long term goals are more in line with each other, than those of Israel. The second issue, is that it undermines the authority of Fatah, making it appear to be operating on the behalf of Israel. The argument could well be made, that buying weapons for Fatah, that they will turn on the Hamas party is paying Fatah to eliminate an enemy of the state of Israel so it doesn't have to do it for itself. This is a very tricky game, and there is not much that can be done that won't be criticised, but I think Israel needs to be more careful in its dealings with Fatah.
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