Resisting Israeli Occupation?

This is what you get when you legitimize armed religous zealots with moral equivelance and pandering.

Children of Islamic Hamas opponent killed (TimesOnline)

But the Times puts a funny slant on it.

In a disturbing sign of wider regional tensions leaking into the Palestinian arena Fatah sought to portray the Iranian-funded Hamas as stooges of Shia Tehran, killing their fellow Sunni Palestinians.

They ignore the 1400 year old divide within Islam. Dismiss the possibility that Iran uses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as political cover for a policy seeking hegemony over the greater Middle East. Instead adopt the recently-made-trendy stance of attributing the violence, in part, to Iraq.

Wait, I thought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the cause of all violence in the Middle East...now it's the other way around?? (hat tip: ISG) hmm...

Turns out, the BBC may have more of the real story.

Mr Balousheh [the children's father] is considered a leading enemy of Hamas. He was the main interrogator of Hamas members during the 1990s crackdown on the Islamist movement.

And there's the ongoing evolution of "democracy":

Mr Abbas has been considering a request by his allies to hold early elections to resolve an impasse in efforts to form a unity government.
Hamas denounced the proposal to hold another election as a "coup against democracy".

In any event, I doubt this was a botched assassination attempt. More likely, revenge.

Now, how has the international community reacted? The UN? Kofi Annan? Well, he was busy (Annan chides U.S. in farewell speech).

EDIT: Gates of Vienna has a similar view:

The initial news reports claimed that Mr. Balousheh was the supposed target of the killing. However, Carl in Jerusalem puts it in even starker terms: “I believe that they were trying to get the kids as a warning to the father and to other Fatah members.”

In other words, they knew the father wasn’t in the car; instead, the targeting of the children was a message to him. And the fact that the message was delivered in a font called Overkill, in a street full of other children, didn’t matter at all. What was important was to deliver the message.

In addition to that, a tidbit, if you could call it that, on politicians from a certain party meeting with HAMAS members. sigh.