THE PALESTINIAN NON-CIVIL WAR CONTINUES: “Gunbattles raged between Hamas loyalists and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s forces in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding a dozen others, medical officials said. Internal Palestinian fighting — the worst in a decade — has escalated since Abbas called on Saturday for early elections in an attempt to break a political deadlock with the Hamas government. Hamas has accused Abbas of launching a ‘coup.’ . . . While neither the Hamas Islamists nor Fatah have declared the end of a ceasefire agreed on Sunday night, there has been a spate of gunfights and kidnappings of rival activists since then.”

Obviously the U.S. invasion of Palestine and the toppling of Arafat were mistakes, creating a quagmire of sectarian strife which despite official denials is now turning into open civil — oops, wrong story template. That should have been: “It’s all the Israelis’ fault!”