SHOULD Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meet tomorrow, Abbas will come with a long agenda. The Palestinians want Israel to fulfill promises made at a previous Abbas-Sharon summit in February, including the release of additional Palestinian prisoners and a military withdrawal from more West Bank towns.
But now being stirred into the already murky stew is an entirely new ingredient — a worsening intra-Palestinian conflict which is becoming a trouble zone of its own. In Gaza, a fortnight of accumulated tension between the PA and Hamas culminated in street clashes and a firefight at police stations, resulting in the deaths of three people. In another incident, a previously unknown Palestinian group did what would have been unthinkable a short while ago — abducted senior Hamas members. So dire is the situation that the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei is to submit its resignation to Abbas so that he can form a new government capable of handling the chaos now rampant throughout the territories. That Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are closer than ever to the point of implosion is a situation worlds away from that of only a few weeks ago when Hamas was reveling in some of the best days it had ever known, celebrating Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. It claimed that its attacks had forced Israel into a humiliating retreat, and that Gaza was just the beginning.
Then, however, once again came Israeli helicopters and fighter jets in the sky over Gaza after Hamas launched rocket attacks at the Israeli town of Sderot in retaliation for the explosion that ripped through one of the group’s victory rallies and killed sixteen. The blast was blamed on Israel by Hamas while the PA thought it an accident. Hamas’ major concession — a halt to all its attacks from Gaza — after swift Israeli military retaliation apparently broke its spirit. Hamas normally adopts the most hostile possible position toward Israel; so the uncharacteristic raising of the white flag was a clear sign of concern that any advantage it had gained from Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza would be squandered if its actions were to draw Israel back into the territory.
From then on, Hamas, the movement that portrays itself as the iron fist of the Palestinian resistance, looked beatable and was in fact defeated in recent municipal polls by Fatah and thus insult was added to already painful injury. The vote is viewed as a prelude to January’s crucially important Palestinian Legislative Council elections which Hamas was expected to do well in, although such a prediction may be dampened by unfolding events. Should Abbas and Sharon meet, the Israeli prime minister will definitely want tougher action to be taken against Hamas. Abbas has refused to use force to disarm Hamas, preferring instead to negotiate with it. The PA’s viewpoint has been that the best way to conquer Hamas is not necessarily at the ballot box but to co-opt it.
The problem is that Hamas as a group and an ideology is not yet sure whether it is in the Palestinians’ best interests, or its own, if it forswears activism for participation in a nascent democracy.
