Abbas wins US backing

From the Independent:

"The United States made clear yesterday it would give aid to the new emergency Palestinian government as hundreds of Fatah activists conducted reprisal raids against Hamas officials and offices in the West Bank.

The US Consul General in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, told the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, that his new government will be granted a lifting of the boycott imposed 15 months ago after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections last year."

I don't understand people who think this emerging 'three-state' situation can be anything but a disaster. Like Johann Hari, I hate Hamas. I'm not sure about his suggestions towards a solution but would tend to agree with much of what he says about the present course now being pursued by the Bush administration. We should be clear about what is happening here: they are backing gangsters because they are secular gangsters in the belief that they will prevent something worse coming to power. It sounds rather familiar and since this is a policy that has demonstrably failed all over the Middle East, what makes them think it will work now?