White House didn't see that one coming

World Tribune has an inside track on how the Hamas massacre of Fatah came as a surprise to the Bush administration and to our intelligence services:

"There is shock and awe," an official said. "It's a major blow to the administration's policy."

...

"There will be a lot of bad feelings during the meeting," the official said. "Bush saw an Israeli-Palestinian peace process as having the potential to become a major achievement during his last 18 months in office."

See, there's your problem right there. Clinton wanted the same thing and relentlessly courted Arafat in order to add "peace in the Middle East" to his legacy. It's not going to happen. Hamas and the radicals don't want it to happen. We can't make it happen. In fact, I believe our trying just makes it worse.

On Wednesday, the administration, for the first time in nearly two years, sought to distinguish between Hamas's political leadership and the military wing. The State Department said Hamas politicians were not involved in the offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"It is this so-called military wing of Hamas that launched these attacks," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said,...

NO NO NO! Bad move. There's no "political wing" of Al Qaeda--they're all terrorist jackwangles. Is Hamas any different? There is nothing for Bush or the United States to gain by drawing these fine and ultimately meaningless distinctions. You can't appease them. Fatah just learned that in spades, as Jules Crittenden observes:

From her Unsealed Room, AKSommer glances over at Gaza, notices a Fatah gunman pathetically pleading, prior to being dragged out into the street and shot in the head by Hamas, “We’re not Jews!”

Remarked my Jewish deskmate, when I related this tale to him tonight at work, “Well, you are now.”

Memo to White House: We all are.