Discovering MENA and other thoughts

“Hay que tener cuidado al elegir a los enemigos porque uno termina pareciéndose a ellos”, dijo en su día Jorge Luis Borges. Cuando tu principal enemigo está en casa y está tan imbricado con tu misma de razón de ser, no es de extrañar que te sea difícil avanzar y luchar contra el enemigo exterior. Es éste el caso de la causa palestina, que no se conforma con chocar una y otra vez contra el muro de la intolerancia israelí, sino que se ve continuamente erosionada por las diferencias y luchas cainitas en el seno de la propia élite palestina. El ejemplo más significativo es la guerra – no por coincidencia denominada “guerra entre hermanos” – entre Hamas y Fatah, que estalló cuando los primeros se proclamaron vencedores de las elecciones que la Franja de Gaza había celebrado en enero de 2006.

"You have to be careful when choosing your enemies because sooner or later you will end up resembling them," Jorge Luis Borges said once. When your main enemy is your team-mate and is deeply embedded with your very raison d'être, it's no wonder how difficult it may be for you to move forward and fight any external threat whatsoever. This is exactly the case with the Palestinian cause, that does not seem to have enough with crashing time and again against the wall of Israeli intolerance and sees itself continually eroded by brotherly differences and struggles within the Palestinian elite itself. The most significant example of this is the war - not coincidentally called "war between brothers" - between Hamas and Fatah that broke out when the former were proclaimed winners of the elections the January 2006 Gaza Strip.