Civil War in the Middle East

And no, its not in Iraq.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz decided on Thursday, in accordance to defense establishment recommendations, to allow the transfer of weapons and ammunition from Israel to supporters of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The amount of weapons to be transferred was limited, and came out of concern for Abbas' life and position at the head of the PA, security officials said.

Translation: We would rather deal with Abbas than Hamas, and keeping Abbas alive at this point requires our assistance. Perhaps what the Israelis are hoping for is a Palestinian Civil War. But transfering weapons is a dangerous proposition, as it gives Hamas grounds to call Abbas an Israeli puppet. They likely will anyways, but this gives such a charge some ground to stand on. Its quite clear that Hamas is more popular now. My personal take is that Israel should let Hamas run as freely as they dare... in order for Hamas to demonstrate itself as just as incompetent and corrupt as Fatah.