SJS3- The Fragmentation of Palestine

Source: Robinson, Glenn E. "The Fragmentation of Palestine." Current History, vol. 106, no. 704, Dec. 2007, pp. 421-26.

Author: Glenn E. Robinson is an associate professor and worked for the Center of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. His work has been published in many scholarly journals, mostly focusing on the Middle East. He has also worked extremely diligently with the U.S. Agency for International Development to help design and implement developmental projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

Summary: This article is about the divide in Palestine between the Hamas and the Fatah. Fatah has usually been the dominant political party but in recent decades, Hamas have gotten more involved in politics. Hamas’s candidate won the election in 2006 which spurred many difficult times in the Palestinian society. Fatah did not agree with this and attempted to take action which resulted in a back and forth match between the Hamas and Fatah. The West Bank was then divided and it has become seemingly impossible for Palestinians to travel from village to village. The Israeli colonies in the West Bank region are essential to the reasoning for the fragmentation of Palestinian lands. Most people feel that to form a stable Palestinian society, in the future they are going to have to form a union from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and form a binational state. No one really wants this to occur; Israelis prefer the idea of the Jewish state and Palestinians support the illiberal version of a binational state.

Analysis: The author does make a strong argument because he backs up all of his information with examples. With every argument and opposing viewpoint that the author brings up, he does provide factual and historical evidence to verify his statement. I do not believe that the author used much opinion in this piece, yet if he did, it was quite obvious when and where he was using it in the text. I do believe that the author is a reliable source because he seems to be in the right state of mind and he presents his information objectively in the article.