The Quartet Objectives

Divide and rule is a tried and trusted tactic of imperialism. The only remaining barrier to complete surrender by the Palestinians is the Islamic movement of Hamas. This barrier has to be removed whatever it takes. The US and its allies have tried several tactics to discredit Hamas. The first and most obvious trick is to label them as a proxy of Iran. This is not a charge that can be readily disproven and fits in neatly with the current propaganda campaign against the Iranians who have been labelled as sponsors of terrorists and a rogue reshime. The spin meisters of Fatah have also taken this line to heart and often 'insult' Hamas by calling them 'Shia' when in fact they are actually Sunni. The second tactic is to strangle the Gaza Strip where Hamas has its power base, by forcing its residents into dire poverty and near starvation. Even in liberal organs like Haaretz, Israelis openly discuss whether they should continue with their generosity in supplying water to the strip (Ignoring of course the fact that they have robbed the water supply and fertile lands of Palestinians for decades). In practice they are already limiting water by limiting fuel so that water cannot be pumped where it is needed. The residents are also short of medicines and medical care with no option to go to Eygpt or the West Bank for treatment. In short, the effective policy is to blackmail the population into supporting Fatah with the hope that small crumbs of help will come their way, from the scraps Israel has thrown to Abbas as reward for his loyalty in mounting a coup against the elected government. The third tactic is one of ongoing military attacks against Hamas members (routinely described as militants or terrorists even when they are unarmed political activists) leading to assassination or imprisonment for no reason other than for a member of Hamas. This deprives Hamas of politically active and articulate spokesmen who can defend it from the smears routinely used by Israel and Fatah.

The fourth source of pressure, is the use of diplomatic and political isolation by members of the 'Quartet'. Despite organising the release of Alan Johnston, Hamas members who looked forward to being rewarded with recognition by the international community will be disappointed. The appointment of arch-zionist Blair as a quartet envoy is a severe blow to this hope. Blair will not be involved in any peace talks as none are planned by Tel Aviv or Washington, even with the servile Fatah. His role will apparently be to 'help the Palestinians to develop their institutions' . This is to suggest that Palestinians are incapable of self-governance. They simply don't know how a real government is put together. Like petulant children, they must be shown the error of their ways and learn the 'rules' of democracy. Presumably this includes not protesting against their land and houses being taken away/destroyed or their groves and kids being targeted by settlers. Above all it means allowing the Israelis to continue with their carve up of Palestinian territory and enveloping East Jerusalem inside the apartheid wall. The Blair envoyship is of course a diversion from this real root cause of the entire problem: The occupation. Blair ticks all the right boxes for the zionists. He is a charlatan who can 'charmingly' distract the world with press conferences and proposals for 'democratic reform', whilst allowing his zionist friends to solidify the facts of occupation on the ground. The hope is that Hamas will remain in limbo during this time and the people who voted for them, will turn against them in desperation.

All these tactics are meant to eliminate Hamas and to render Palestinian institutions under the control of the 'international community'. Fatah is now and will remain a glove puppet with the hand of the 'international community' stuck up its arse. They are a trojan horse party hiding the agents of zionism. Independent politicians like Mustafa Barghouti will be sidelined and denied a voice, or be accused of siding with Hamas. Those who nurse the vain hope that Blair will be a voice of moderation in the ear of the zionists should read his words to the Labour Friends of Israel:

There is something I think that needs to be said on behalf of Israel today and came through to me clearly in all the discussions I had with Israeli Ministers from different political parties in the Israeli Government. Israel wants peace with its neighbours, Israel wants to live in harmony with those of different religions, of different faiths and different races in the region, Israel simply wants to know that those other countries in the region respect it on its desire to live in peace and are prepared to recognise the most basic and fundamental thing which is it's right to exist.....And I meant what I said today about dedicating myself to advancing the process of peace between Israel and Palestine. It is very difficult. At the moment when I again reflect on what I learnt in Israel a few weeks ago, the truth is people yearn for peace but - I think if we are honest about it - have in recent times given up hope of it happening. And that of sense of people drawing back and feeling that the situation is hopeless is the first thing we have to change because the terrible tragedy of the situation is that, yes there are difficult issues that have to be resolved, the territories the refugees, Jerusalem, everybody knows the issues but in the end everyone also knows that the vast majority of Israelis and the vast majority of Palestinians - given the chance would want to live in peace side by side with each other in a state for the Palestinians in a state of Israel - the one viable, the other confident of its security.

In other words, Israel is the innocent party who only want peace whilst sorrounded by hostile countries. The real issues get a passing mention as being 'difficult', but everybody wants to be happy in and Israel alone is entitled to 'security' (unlike Palestinians who only need 'viability' for their imaginary state)

If we brought about a situation in which Colonel Shalit was released, which of course he should be, where we are then able to have a national unity Government on the Palestinian side that was faithful to the principles set out by the Quartet, that is the United Nations, as well as America, Europe and Russia. If we were able to do that and if we were then able to get other confidence building measures from the Israeli side as well...

Translation from Blairspeak: The Palestinians should give up their sole military captive, and have a government that is subservient to the Quartet 'principles', then we may get a few token measures by Israel to maybe move a few checkpoints here and there, to ease the travel of Palestinians who often have to travel a dozen miles to reach a place only a mile away [ignoring the big fuck off wall that is built mostly on this very territory]. Indeed this is another pretence of the zionist supporters; that they only real problem the palestinians face is the inconvenience of checkpoints. The demolitions, wall, evictions, closures, confiscations, outright theft and harassment by settlers fall into a memory hole. Blair and co. deliberately ignore the larger picture. No wonder the bastard is known as 'a true friend of Israel'.