The schism between Fatah and Hamas, represented by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, is becoming greater by the day. The sight of Fatah gunmen parading through Gaza City, defying a ban on displays of force, is a show of strength that is highlighting the difficulties Hamas is expected to have controlling the fighters and security forces loyal to Fatah. The factional fighting which recently broke out — and in which three people were killed in a shootout — poses serious questions as to how effectively Hamas will be able to control the various security agencies. In the past, they have tended to be loyal to the Fatah political party, which Hamas has just ousted from power. There is also the reminder that Hamas groups also possess weapons and have previously defied orders to put them down, raising further the specter of a rupture in law and order.
In trying to keep in check increasingly restless gunmen from the defeated Fatah Party, Hamas is earnestly trying to prevent civil strife, the source of which could easily come from the suicide attack led by Fatah-linked gunmen which killed four Israelis last week. The attack certainly exposed the divisions within the Palestinian government since Hamas defended the bombing as “resistance” against Israeli “crimes,” putting it at odds with Abbas, who condemned the attack. The real rift, though, from the attack lies in what might be the attack’s real purpose. For a group of Fatah men to stage a bombing, not with the aim of pressuring Israel to end its occupation but what might be an attempt to turn up the heat on the Hamas government, adds a totally new element to the conflict. Now, instead of Palestinian against Israeli, there is a new problem: Palestinian against Palestinian. Such a problem can only undermine the real one that is of course with Israel.
The dilution in Palestinian power is especially serious in the wake of the formation of the new Israeli government that is intent on unilaterally setting Israel’s borders in the West Bank without peace talks. These are plans that the US has hinted is open to its ideas, the first time the US appears to have dropped its insistence that the conflict must be solved bilaterally. Meanwhile, international mediators have told Hamas it must recognize Israel if it wants to be guaranteed continued aid. The Middle East quartet has said aid would inevitably be affected as long as Hamas failed to renounce violence. The quartet statement is bleak but does not make any final pronouncement, as nearly everyone involved is keen that Hamas be given room to maneuver. The Europeans — and others — supported holding elections so, ethically, they should accept and respect the choice of the Palestinian people. That choice, made by the people and won by Haniyeh, has repeated a call for calm, urging rival factions not to resort to violence. Haniyeh said Hamas had observed a cease-fire with Israel for the past 14 months and that it wanted to put an end to the bloodshed but he quickly added that recognizing Israel was not an option without Israel’s first promising to withdraw from all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Since the Hamas government was formed it already finds itself having to fight on fronts that include Israel, the US and the quartet and now Fatah as well. This is a highly inauspicious start to Hamas rule. It does not appear things will get any smoother.
