PA daily op-ed: “The Israeli and American enemy” were behind 2007 Hamas coup

Excerpt of op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily

Headline: "Revoking the coup is a condition for unity"

"[Hamas'] coup [in Gaza] (see note below –Ed.) was prepared in advance according to a clear goal and agenda, and for the interests of the Israeli and American enemy and the opposing revolutionary forces in the Arab homeland and the region. The coup was tantamount to the spearhead of the so-called Spring of Arab Revolutions, and the engine of acts of destruction within the states and peoples of the Arab nation.

Despite the coup failing to attain its strategic goals, which are the erasure and elimination of the Palestinian cause, it did not fail tactically since it succeeded in tearing apart the two parts of the homeland – and the Hamas Movement militias succeeded in imposing their full control over the southern Palestinian districts (i.e., the Gaza Strip)."

2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip - Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah won the 2005 Palestinian Authority Presidential election. However, Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with a majority of 74 out of 132 seats, to Fatah's 45 seats. Fatah's rule of the PA Presidency and Hamas' rule of the PA government led to friction and eventually armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas defeated Fatah militarily in the Gaza Strip in 2007, and since then Hamas has ruled in Gaza while the PA continues to rule the PA areas in the West Bank under Fatah.