The new model Gaza.

Well, W.'s whole democracy-on-the-march-in-the-Middle-East-thing has pretty much gone down like a flaming Zepplin, hasn't it? Lebanon is a basket case; Iraqi's fleeting purple-fingered "triumph" has become a pornographic nightmare of blood and violence, which just get's worse expodentially every week; and now -- as if things were bad enough -- we have Hamas taking over Gaza by force of arms.

Hey, that's just great! Obviously, the best way to have dealt with a Hamas electorial victory back in January of 2006 was to cut off all foreign aid to the PA, to show the Palestinian people the errors of their ways. Then, naturally, you just expect that they'd reject Hamas, cozy up to America's and Israel's chosen leader, and we'd get on with the two-state solution.

No? That's not how it works?

Today the WaPo sums up the situation:

"In his final 18 months as president, he faces the prospect of a shattered Palestinian Authority, a radical Islamic state on Israel's border and increasingly dwindling options to turn the tide against Hamas and create a functioning Palestinian state."

Now the new plan is to isolate Hamas, along with everyone unlucky enough to be stuck in Gaza, and shower aid on Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. Great idea! That'll work.