Not necessarily a bad thing, for reasons I’ll try to elaborate on later. (Hint: According to media reports, the most popular Fatah figure was Marwan Barghouti, currently residing in an Israeli jail for directing the murder of Israeli civilians a few years back.)
Meanwhile, in my view, the gloves are off. If Hamas doesn’t recognize Israel (and, more important, renounce terrorism) right away, I can’t see any reason why Israel wouldn’t be perfectly within its rights to destroy all PA government buildings, given that they are now the assets of a terrorist group that demands Israel’s destruction. There may be practical reasons (let Hamas implode on its own accord), but Israel has no reason to treat Hamas as a legitimate government [update: or, as a reader suggests, perhaps Israel should treat Hamas as a legitimate government at war with Israel]. You say they were elected? So if Hamas runs a terrorist state bent on its destruction Israel should refrain from treating it as an enemy because it’s an elected terrorist government bent on Israel’s destruction? Please. By that logic, the U.S. shouldn’t have responded to the Nazis’ declaration of war.
(I’ll open comments later, after I finish teaching today, after I (hopefully) have an opportunity to post further thoughts.)
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