PrintFebruary 15, 2009
Hamas Vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine
Hamas Vs. Fatah: The Struggle for PalestineBy Jonathan SchanzerPalgrave MacMillan, 2008 239pp. $26.95Reviewed by Clare M. LopezAs a new American administration takes office promising renewal of the Middle East ‘peace process,' and Israel looks to national elections in February 2009, the Palestinians have no real government at all. Bitterly divided between their internal factions, Hamas and Fatah, they maul each other with a savagery that mocks the world's hopes for a Palestinian unity government-even as that outside world barely knows there is fitna in Palestine. Set against the backdrop of thoroughly unrealistic expectations for the birth of a unified Palestinian state, Jonathan Schanzer's Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for Palestine lays bare the raw facts of an internecine conflict rooted deeply in a battle for the identity of the Palestinian Arabs. Although the origins of this conflict date to the foundation of Hamas in the crucible of the 1987 Intifada, its existence...(Read Full Article)
