As 80% of Arabs living in Gaza are currently living on a Dollar a day the two state solution proposed by president Bosh has become moot.

The President of the authority Abu Mazen has dissolved the old government  firing the prime minister from the Hamas faction Ismeal Hania. Instead he has replaced him with the former treasury minister Salyeem fayad.  These changes are mostly cosmetic  as Hania is not resigning or giving power to anyone. The situation is that there are two separate Palestinian Arab entities. One is in the Gaza Strip and one in Judea Samaria. This is a very bizarre and complicated situation as there are now ostensibly four different states in the former British governed mandate territory.  These would be three Arab states

Jordan, Hamas controlled Gaza, Fatah controlled Judea Samaria and Israel.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been quoted as saying that the Judea Samaria sections controlled by Fatah will be soon controlled by the Hamas if the I.D.F. is redeployed out of Judea and Samaria.  So four may soon become three.

In any case President Bush will need to reassess his policy with regard to a two state solution. This policy was based on free elections that would lead to legal social and  economic infrastructures. Those free elections led to Hamas victory and complete anarchy in the Gaza Strip. The sad truth is that the people in Gaza and Judea Samaria for that matter support the more radical Hamas and look at the Fatah as a agent of the U.S.A. that doesn’t adhere to the strict tenets of Islam.

The extreme poverty that exists in Gaza has even made many locals nostalgic for Israeli settlement. “things were better when there were settlements here “ a number of locals anonymously said afraid to identify themselves for fear of reprisals.

From what can be seen on the ground  the US backed Israeli pullout from Gaza has led to suffering on both sides of the border and brought the region once more to the brink of war.