Palestine Divided

The division of Palestine - hypothesized yesterday - is reality this morning. This is not entirely bad news: the West Bank has always been more peaceful than Gaza, and perhaps freed from the constraint of having to treat Gaza and the West Bank the same, Israel and the West can renew a peace process with a chastened and beholden Fatah. The NY Times suggests as much:

Israeli officials suggested that Israel would work with Abbas and a Fatah government in the West Bank, and could gradually hand over to it the remaining Palestinian tax revenues, about $562 million, withheld since Hamas took power a year ago in March. "To give the money to a Hamas government would be reckless," one senior Israeli official said. "To give it to a Fatah government is an opportunity."

The deep question, of course, is whether Fatah can maintain control in the West Bank. Hamas will undoubtedly try to expand its foothold there, using elections, intimidation, the media, and the mosque. Whether it succeeds may determine the future of the Palestinian state (or states?).