The latest from Palestine:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Palestinian government Thursday and declared a state of emergency after rival Hamas forces took complete control of the Gaza Strip in what the Islamic movement called the territory's "liberation."

In a presidential decree, Abbas fired Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and suggested that new national elections would occur soon. Abbas's decision ends the three-month-old power-sharing arrangement between his Fatah movement and Hamas, the two main Palestinian political parties.

This did not have to be.

One year ago, after Hamas won Palestinian elections, the Associated Press reported:

Hamas is drawing close to a compromise on a document that would implicitly recognize Israel, a senior official of the Hamas-led Palestinian government said...

Why? Maybe it was that democracy stuff Dubya claims to care about. From a July 15, 2006 Asia Times analysis:

...Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya ... voted into office early this year, wants to run a country and is suffering from an international boycott on food, medicine and money into the Palestinian territories.

Wages have not been paid in Palestine since February. Haniyya made several gestures of goodwill toward Israel ... to prove that he was not in power to combat Israel but to improve the livelihood of the Palestinians.

But those gestures of moderation were rebuffed.

Today's NY Times quotes on former State Dept. official saying the big missed opportunity was in 2005 when Abbas became president, and Bush failed to "empower" him.

No doubt that 2005 failure to nurture Palestinian democracy was the failure that led to Hamas' 2006 democratic victory.

But failing to respect those in Hamas who were signaling moderation -- once again failing to respect democracy -- was just as big a failure. (One recognized by LiberalOasis at the time.)

The most disturbing prospect is that these missed opportunities were missed deliberately.

As the NY Times reports today, the White House pressed Abbas to dismiss the democratically elected Haniyeh and dissolve the Palestinian unity government, allowing Palestinians to be effectively divided between Hamas-led Gaza and Fatah-led West Bank.

And as Seymour Hersh said on CNN last month, about White House foreign policy throughout the Middle East region:

We're in a business right now of creating in some places ... a sectarian violence.