Egypt transfers arms to Fatah, with Israel's approval

Since Hamas was elected to power in the Palestinian territories the US, EU and Israel have done all in their power to prevent the Palestinian people being represented by their democratically elected representatives.

Harsh sanctions have been imposed on the region and recently Olmert agreed to release $100 million of Palestinian money that Israel is holding directly to Abbas, rather than to the Hamas government. Tony Blair went on to support Abbas' call for a fresh set of elections presumably in the hope that the Palestinians will reverse their original decision and elect a government more to the west's pleasing.

Now comes the news that Israel is allowing the Egyptians to arm Fatah with 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 20,000 magazines and two million rounds of ammunition.

The issue of reinforcing the Fatah forces was the subject of discussions among Israeli, Egyptian and American officials. A decision was made during the meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday.

During the meeting, Abbas also promised to deploy men from his Presidential Guard along the Philadelphi Route to prevent smuggling, and also in the northern Gaza Strip, to prevent the targetting of Israeli towns with Qassam rockets.

Abbas traveled to Egypt Wednesday for a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. At the end of their meeting, Abbas said that Israel has not rejected the possibility of establishing a "back channel" - closed to the media, but not secret - through which negotiations could be held toward a permanent settlement.

Abbas said that this matter was raised in his meeting with Olmert and that the Israeli leader had promised to evaluate his proposal.

The Palestinian leader added that the Americans have also not rejected this option.

So, apart from attempting to starve the Palestinians into submission, we now have the west practically forming Abbas' private army. And Abbas, whose party was defeated at the latest election, is being deemed the man to hold "back channel" discussions towards a permanent settlement.

The very fact that both the Israelis and the Americans are willing to consider this option is surely enough to make most Palestinians doubt just how "reasonable" Abbas is likely to be in any future negotiations.

He's beginning to look dangerously like "their man" with his private army and his "closed, but not secret" back channels.

It would surely be much wiser for the Israelis to deal with the people who the Palestinians have elected to represent them. These same Israelis, who could not deal with Arafat, now find they cannot deal with Hamas.

The very fact that they can deal with Abbas - although mostly through "closed, but not secret" back channels - will only dangerously undermine Abbas' ability to be seen as independent.

I can understand any politician's wish to overcome his political opponents, but Abbas is now openly siding with the US and the occupying power, which is perhaps one of the reasons why the Palestinians failed to elect him in the first place.

That same occupying power is now allowing him to arm himself in what one can only presume is an attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government.

If this is an example of the beloved democracy that we seek to export across the globe we can hardly be surprised that it is greeted with extreme scepticism. We seem to be embracing democracy only when it delivers results that we agree with.

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tag: Israel, Palestine, Abbas, the occupied territories, Fatah, Gaza, Olmert, Hamas, Blair