The World’s Next (and Smallest) Islamist State

Gaza: one giant refuge camp surrounded by the farmlands of Israel and the barren desert of the Sinai.

This post began as an account of Hamas gains in Gaza, but it was out of date by the time I wrote it. In brief, the state of civil war in Gaza over the past month appears to be quickly concluding in an overwhelming victory for Hamas. The Islamists now appear to have taken over all Gaza, and Fatah forces have quickly lost ground under the onslaught by the better-armed and better-disciplined Islamist fighters.

A Hamas spokesman heralded a new “era of justice and Islamic rule.” Of course, Islamic rule so far has meant looting, tossing enemies alive off 15-story buildings, shot one another’s children, bursting into hospitals to finish off the wounded in their beds, the usual Taliban-esque “justice” that comes with the so-called law and order of theological tyranny.

The reaction in the Arab world?

• The Arab League called for a cease-fire, warning of “disaster” otherwise.
• Egypt called for all sides to cooperate (with Egyptian mediation) and threw Cairo’s support strongly behind Abbas.
• Jordan accused unnamed “regional forces” (i.e. Iran, which gives heavy financial support to Hamas). Half its population (2+ million) is Palestinian. A civil war in the West Bank as Gaza is experiencing now could easily spread into Jordan.
• Syria said Thursday it was following the events “with deep concern and pain” and called for Palestinian unity and “closing ranks to face the Israeli occupation.” A Hamas leader exiled in Syria insisted the fighting would not lead to a Gaza-West Bank split, saying the territories are “united and would remain so.” However, Fatah in the West Bank is already rounding up Hamas members to assert control, even as Fatah falls in Gaza.
• Saudi Arabia is silent, furious by the collapse of its high-profile mediation attempt in February in Mecca between Abbas and Hamas that created the unity government.

Outside the Middle East, the UN has called for a ceasefire, but I would be surprised if any nation volunteered peacekeepers to try and keep different factions of the Palestinians from killing each other. The Bush Administration requested that Israel open up Gaza’s sealed frontiers to allow shipments of weapons to Fatah. But PM Ehud Olmert refused on grounds that it was “too late.”

The new reality: a Gaza Strip controlled by the militant group Hamas and a West Bank held by the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas. The world is probably about to welcome the next (and smallest) Islamist [failed] state (or at least the first Islamist Enclave). Quite a qualifier for understanding the world’s newest state, but the truth nonetheless.