Palestinian meltdown - US shares blame

When Palestinian Prime Minister terror chief Ismail Haniyeh tried to return to Gaza through Egypt, he was carrying $35 million in cash from an apparently successful panhandling tour of Arab countries. It was all downhill from there.

Israel didn't want Haniyeh and Hamas using the $35 million for bombs and bullets, so Israel held him up at the border crossing. This angered Hamas gunmen, who stormed the border crossing. Gunmen from Fatah, which hates Hamas almost as much as everyone else does, attacked the Hamas gunmen and Haniyeh's entourage, resulting in the death of one of Haniyeh's bodyguards and the wounding of his son, Abed. Haniyeh made it into Gaza with his life, but minus the $35 million.

It's not clear who did end up with the money, but I figure Israel did. In trying to figure out who got the money, I came across this Reuters article by Nidal al-Mughrabi. This paragraph caught my eye:

Although Israel was not involved in the latest fighting, its decision -- with U.S. backing -- to prevent Haniyeh from entering Gaza with $35 million intensified the standoff in which Haniyeh's convoy came under fire late on Thursday.

So what's also not clear here is exactly how the US backed Israel in its decision to detain Haniyeh. No supporting facts are given. We have no troops in Gaza or in Egypt, and I seriously doubt Israel contacted the US for permission to take this action. But somehow, the US gets blamed--again.

Update: 15 Dec. 2006 @ 09:45
Googling Nidal al-Mughrabi turned up loads of blog posts by media watchers providing examples of his bias. This post from Mediacrity is just one.