Gaza

Danny Rubinstein is an Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs and has covered the Territories for the past years. He is senior – level-headed – impartial – a Zionist with no special love nor affection for the Palestinians and their cause. Yet he writes the following: "While Fatah blamed Hamas for the crisis, the primary reason for the break-up is the fact that Fatah has refused to fully share the Palestinian Authority’s mechanism of power with its rival Hamas, despite Hamas’s decisive victory in the January 2006 general elections. Fatah was forced to overrule Palestinian voters because the entire world demanded it do so.” He adds: “Matters have come to the point where Hamas attempted to take by force what they believe they rightfully deserve.”
Europe and the US have pushed for democratic elections and then proceeded not to honor the results of it. Hamas, the winners of the election, has acted pragmatically observing for over a year a unilateral ceasefire so that their signature suicide attacks ceased. In The Guardian, respected British Newspaper Alvaro de Soto states that it was “under pressure from the United States that Abbas refused Hamas' initial invitation to form a "national unity government." De Soto details that “Abbas advisers actively aided and abetted the Israeli-US-European Union aid cutoff and siege of the Palestinians under occupation, which led to massively increased poverty for millions of people. These advisors engaged with the United States in a "plot" to "bring about the untimely demise of the [Palestinian Authority] government led by Hamas," de Soto wrote. We have often seen the US strategy at work of installing puppet regimes or aiding certain factions such as the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, in Lebanon, Latin America, in Palestine to fight on their behalf. This strategy obvious has fired back. Chairman Mahmoed Abbas has in a hasty and ill advised move declared the state of emergency. We, the west are responsible for the bloodshed, we have armed the factions (just as we armed the contras in Latin America). You'll find the full article here.
In the mean time, the non-violent Women In Black organize their weekly Peace vigils and people in the cultural field set up projects of cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian artists. That is a good way to build bridges for peace.