Come back, Ilyka. Come back.

I have no one else to hang with while tweaking the boys on feminist issues.

Yesterday I expressed skepticism that Fatah and Hamas were headed for a civil war. Maybe I was too quick. There are indications that things have indeed heated up. Whether they’ve reached a plateau or will continue to escalate remains to be seen.

Elder of Ziyon was on top of the escalation. (And I missed it before I posted.)

The NYT reports that Arrests Increase Tensions Between Palestinian Factions. Again I wonder if the arrests increase the tensions or reflect the tensions.

Tensions between the main rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah, spread from Gaza to the West Bank on Monday with reports of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces detaining more than 50 activists and academics associated with Hamas.

The timing of the detentions, which were focused in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, smacked of retaliation for a broad Hamas sweep against Fatah members and institutions in Gaza over the weekend.

(more links at yesterday’s Daily Alert.)

I think it’s safe to assume that those arrested won’t be getting married, allowed conjugal visits and given university educations. ABC News reports:

Two human rights groups on Monday decried widespread torture of political opponents by bitter Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah, and Associated Press interviews with three victims and a doctor backed the reports of abuse.

The findings emerged as the two sides carried out fresh arrest sweeps in the West Bank and Gaza — highlighting deep tensions in the Palestinian territories after a flare-up in violence over the weekend.

The ongoing conflict between Hamas and Fatah hasn’t escaped the notice of Lebanon’s Daily Star, which observes in an editorial:

Over the past few years, the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah has rapidly made its way up the list of threats to the Palestinians’ existence. In some circles, it is still fashionable to blame Israel for all of the Palestinians’ troubles, but in this instance, the leaders of Hamas and Fatah have committed crimes of equal magnitude against their own constituents. Not only have scores of people died at the hands of their armed forces, the fighting has also served to greatly undermine the Palestinian cause. It has become increasingly difficult for the international community to feel sympathy for the Palestinian people when their own leaders provide so much media ammunition to distract the world from their plight. The image of lawlessness and internecine warfare conveys the image of a people who are simply not ready for self-governance or an independent state.

Or as Lee Stevens puts it, a bit more generally:

But here’s another way to look at it: The Palestinian Authority is neither a nascent state nor a failed state project. Rather, it is a clan system of frequently competing interests that no Palestinian leader in his right mind would try to turn into a state, regardless of how much financial incentive the international community makes available. The problem is not that the Arab state system is breaking down, but rather that it never existed. And the proof is unfolding before us in, among other places, Hamas’ Islamic Republic of Gaza, the autonomous Hezbollah regions of Hezbollah Lebanon, and perhaps even someday soon in Iraq, as the Arabs redraw the borders of the region to their own taste with little concern for the international state system.

(h/t Instapundit)

I still doubt that Abbas was responsible for that blast on Friday. Hamas has strength in Judea and Samaria too, so it would be foolish of him to order something so brazen.

Even without further escalation, Hamastan will continue to be a source of instability for the foreseeable future.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The UN is really, really worried about the economy of the Gaza Strip. UNRWA workers claim poverty is at “unprecedented” highs.

The number of households in the Gaza Strip below the poverty line has reached an unprecedented high of nearly 52 percent, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a report published recently.

“The number of households in Gaza below the consumption poverty line continued to grow, reaching 51.8% in 2007, despite significant amounts of emergency and humanitarian assistance,” UNRWA said in a statement late last week. Meanwhile, poverty rates in the West Bank fell to just over 19%.

The report, based on figures provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), said that “the real average unemployment rate in the occupied Palestinian territory (as a whole) remained amongst the highest in the world at 29.5%,” with Gaza reaching “an unprecedented high of 45.3%” during the second half of last year.

Phew. Those are some pretty bad statistics. Why, you’d think the Gaza economy was on the verge of collapse or something. Well, you might—except it was declared just that a year ago:

Gaza’s already weak economy could collapse unless the main commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel is reopened, Gaza businessmen and United Nations officials said today.

The Karni crossing has been shut since June 12 because the Fatah-affiliated Palestinians who operated it fled after Hamas took over Gaza in bloody fighting. But both Israel and the Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, have been in no hurry to help Hamas by working to regularize Gaza’s economic life.

Karen AbuZayd, who is the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which deals with Palestinian refugees, said in an interview: “Without Karni the Gaza economy will collapse unless it is opened for exports and not just for imports, so we don’t punish this whole people.”

Huh. Imagine that. The economy was on the verge of collapse a year ago, and yet, it survived. So the Chicken Littles at the UN are declaring it at the height of poverty, instead.

Say. Why is it, exactly, that the Gaza economy is so crappy, do you think? Let’s take a trip back through time to 2005, after the disengagement, to see what happened.

Amid the rubble of the former Jewish settlements, Palestinians have sown the first seeds of a modest economic revival.

Less than three months after the Israelis departed, Palestinians have repaired scores of greenhouses left by the settlers, planted an autumn crop and are preparing to harvest an estimated $20 million worth of strawberries, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and an array of herbs and spices. The produce is intended mostly for export to Europe, but some will also be headed to Israel, Arab countries and the United States.

So. Whatever happened to those greenhouses that they needed repair in the first place, I wonder?

Palestinian police on Tuesday blocked off abandoned Jewish settlements and chased after scavengers in a first attempt to impose law and order after chaotic celebrations of Israel’s pullout from Gaza, but the overwhelmed forces were unable to halt looting of the area’s prized greenhouses.

Egyptian guards, meanwhile, failed for a second straight day to control a rush across the Gaza-Egypt border, which was a formidable barrier when still patrolled by Israel. With the Israelis gone, Gazans dug under walls and climbed over barriers to get to Egypt where they stocked up on cheap cigarettes, medication and cheese.

Oh, yeah. That happened.

So. Why is it, do you think, the Gaza Strip is suffering from unrelenting poverty? Oh, that’s right. It’s Israel’s fault. Blockade, yadayada, etc., etc. Never blame the actions of the residents of the strip. Don’t blame Hamas. Don’t blame the Gazans support for terrorism. Blame Israel’s blockade.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, I’m not buying it.