Ayoon wa Azan (Israel vs Hamas)

Jihad Al Khazen      Al-Hayat     2003/08/26

When will Israel carry out its next strike against a Hamas leader? Some Palestinian officials view the situation as a war between Israel and Hamas, with U.S. assistance and support to Israel's measures.

I spoke to Palestinian officials in and outside the Palestinian territories, trying to understand what was really going on. I realized that some viewed the assassination of Ismail Abu Shanab as the beginning of the conflict and not its end, knowing that the Israeli security government has already decided to kill all the Hamas leaders, regardless of whether they are political or military. The decision gives the security bodies free reign to carry out operations without referring to the government, which means giving a free hand to these bodies, on the inside and outside.

There actually were Israeli violations, and I heard Hamas members say they reached more than 500 in a matter of 50 days. There were also Palestinian violations, such as obviously carrying weapons and sending archaic missiles on settlements. However, the suicide operation in Jerusalem crossed the red line and drove Israel to take the decision to kill each and every Hamas leader.

Some Palestinian leaders say that each death is a tragedy, but that of a party member in a suicide operation is always compensated with ten others joining the faction. However, the death of a leader creates a vacuum, because it is much harder to find a person of the same caliber to replace him.

I've already mentioned that I heard leaders of the Islamic resistance group wonder whether they should remain silent as "we watch our members get killed one after the other, whether in the streets or in their houses with their families?" I also heard Mahmoud Abbas ask me if there was an alternative to negotiations or to the Roadmap. I used to think that these leaders and Abbas were right.

In response to what I previously said, a friend of mine who is a leader and whose opinion I trust, asked me: Do we sacrifice the lives of our martyrs for the sake of revenge or to make an achievement? We need to make achievements for the sake of the Palestinian people, and not for the sake of revenge in a cycle of violence that victimizes our people; and he asked me: Is the weapon a means to achieve a goal or a goal in itself? He then answered that if it were a means, then we shouldn't shy away from changing the means.

This same official added that the Jerusalem operation aborted an extremely important Israeli offer that was raised during the last meeting between Shaul Mofaz and Dahlan, when the Israelis offered to withdraw from four cities including Ramallah, and to do it from the regions of these cities, not through Bethlehem. They also offered to stop hunting down the Palestinian wanted men and turn their case over to the Palestinian government, as well as grant more work permits and licenses to Palestinian businessmen and traders.

It is no longer enough to restore the truce, as new terms must be added if it is to continue, like the fact that the Palestinian weapons should be in the hands of one party, the way it goes in every other country of the world.

The fact is that Mohamad Dahlan, Minister of State for Security Affairs, is in charge of the police, preventive security, criminal security, immigration and passports, whereas President Arafat controls the national security forces and the public intelligence, meaning almost 60% of the Palestinian security bodies.

When Arafat was asked to bring his help, his response was to toss the table on the others in one of his famous maneuvers, and he suggested assigning Nasser Youssef as head of all the security bodies, knowing that he is the Minister of Interior. But his suggestion did not hold, because there were too many obstacles to it, first of all the objection of both Abbas and Dahlan. I also heard there was a British idea, according to which Dahlan would become a Minister of State in charge of internal security, and Youssef a Minister of State in charge of foreign security.

But there are also difficulties facing such a distribution of roles, because Arafat believes that given the latest developments, his role has resumed and the Americans have realized that he is detrimental to stopping the armed resistance. Nevertheless, the Israelis will most probably take measures against him, and bear the American wrath for some time, because Sharon is convinced that he can impose any decision on the Bush administration.

In this case, Abbas has three options: to resign, wage a war against Israel or wage a war against Hamas. His problem is that he tried to conciliate with all parties, but when his attempts failed, he became a common victim for everyone, not to mention how strongly he is resisting the American pressures pushing him to fight the Islamic resistance. In fact, he told the Americans that he was ready to meet all the demands, but never become a party to a Palestinian civil war, which is also Dahlan's position.

In a phone interview, a high-ranking official said that all the opinion polls conducted in Israel and the Palestinian territories revealed that most Israelis and Palestinians are in favor of the truce, which means that only Sharon and Hamas seem to oppose it.

This official noted that Hamas claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem operation, but he believed that the attack took place without leadership planning, as before the situation exploded, Israel and the Islamic resistance were violating the truce within certain limits that prevented any collapse.

Today, there is a race between asking for a truce with new terms designed to prevent a new collapse, and Israel killing another Hamas leader or the resistance carrying out another major suicide operation, hence leaving the future of the Roadmap in the hands of Sharon and Hamas.