Men Of Violence

"I like this violence"

Who are  "men of violence"?  Are they the ones who always wear masks and brandish weapons, or those who stand on the sidelines and cheer the fight?  According to Paul Woodward, the second group are also men of violence, none more so than Assistant Secretary of State and US Envoy to the Middle East, David Welch.

"I like the violence" -- these were Welch's words when fighting erupted between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza earlier this year. Welch may be in a less celebratory mood right now, because his side (a small faction inside Fatah) is losing.

The fact that the Bush administration has been instrumental in trying to foment a Palestinian civil war has been clearly documented by Conflicts Forum, but since the press in Washington has been too timid to dig in to this story, it has largely been ignored.

But now Conflicts Forum's accusations are backed up by a diplomat of the highest rank. Just-retired UN coordinator for the Middle East, Alvaro de Soto, wrote the following in May, 2007, in a confidential report [PDF] addressed to Ban Ki-Moon, UN secretary-general:

...the US clearly pushed for a confrontation between Fateh and Hamas -- so much so that, a week before Mecca, the US envoy declared twice in an envoys meeting in Washington how much "I like this violence", referring to the near-civil war that was erupting in Gaza in which civilians were being regularly killed and injured, because "it means that other Palestinians are resisting Hamas".

http://warincontext.org/2007_06_10_archive.html#2369796006009353298

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