Gaza a Hobbesian Nightmare

In case you haven't notice Gaza, post-pullout, has degenerated into a post-hurricane New Orleans sans flooding. Ok I'm exaggerating - to the best of my knowledge there are no confirmed reports of kidnappings or two hour shootouts in NO. Richard Cohen reflects on the Palestinian Authority, the murder of Moussa Arafat and what the future holds:

But blunt talk is precisely what's needed. In the case of the Palestinians, they have to be told to shape up. The murder of Moussa Arafat is just the latest self-induced catastrophe. The very funeral of cousin Yasser was accompanied by mayhem and a gun battle in the mourning tent. Abbas, who was there to pay his respects, was shoved to the ground by his security detail. This was not an assassination attempt, everyone said, but merely a way of delivering a message. Abbas apparently got it. It may explain why he has moved with such timidity against the various militias. His life is on the line.

Gaza is lawless. Kidnappings are common. Armed gangs roam the streets. Under these conditions, it will be impossible for the Palestinians to secure outside investors. Who's going to put money in a business when there's virtually no rule of law? In fact, it took altruistic American Jewish investors to put up the money ($14 million) to buy the machinery -- computers and the like -- that kept Gaza's greenhouses running. From what one of them told me, the Palestinians themselves were so intent on not accepting any "tainted" aid that they were reconciled to losing the greenhouses and the jobs that came with them. It was a sorry spectacle.

Abbas has his work cut out for him. But he would be helped if his fellow Arabs and others in the international community held Palestinians as accountable as they do Israelis. The murder of Moussa Arafat and the ordinary lawlessness of Gaza show that when it comes to enemies, Palestinians don't need Israel. They do just fine on their own.