Palestine: The Divided House Falls

It's hard to sift through all the layers of silt here. As though the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts weren't bad enough, now Hamas and Fatah have finally decided they've really had enough of each other this time. Then there's the more global issue of Islamic militancy; Hamas sticking its proverbial finger in the proverbial eye of the somewhat proverbial West.

But the silt has somewhat settled, and the murkiness is a little less murky, and some interesting things have come to light:

• The somewhat proverbial West has resumed payments to the Fatah government under Abbas in the West Bank. For once, i think an Islamic takeover has done the world some kind of good, indirectly of course. Hamas won't be able to function economically without international aid, whilst the Fatah government should at least be able to pay their civil workers salaries they've been denied for a while, which should result in some kind of stability and economic progress. This is probably going to be a banal oversimplification, but i see this as a black eye for Islamic militant ideology.
• Israel has surprised me. Maybe they are just acting as pawns of the US and the rest of the proverbial West, but this article describes doctors from Israel helping Palestinians trapped when trying to flee from Hamas fighters. i only have a surface knowledge of the situation here, but it looks to me like Muslims, fleeing death at the hands of Muslims, are being helped by Jews. Interesting.
  
• The larger picture here looks to me like a dead end for the kind of "angry Muslim" worldview. Palestinians are dependent on foreign aid, most of this aid coming from the US and the EU, both of which are more or less the named enemies of radical Islam. If Al-Qaeda or other groups do succeed in toppling "The Great Satan" and her allies, a rampage of poverty would shock the non-Muslim and Muslim world alike. i realize this is farcical and somewhat slippery slopish, but i exaggerate to make a point.

Well. Those are my bulleted thoughts. Take 'em or leave 'em. Just don't box me into one of those "Americans only talk about their own country" boxes. It's crowded in there.