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Lessons of the Hamas-Fatah Fighting

[Ha'aretz] Ze'ev Schiff - The bloody clashes between Hamas and Fatah in the Palestinian Authority show that the international financial and economic siege of the Hamas government, led by the U.S, is succeeding. The war in Lebanon affected the Palestinians. According to public opinion surveys, many Palestinians support "resistance," i.e., a continuation of terror attacks. In their view, only resistance brings results and victories, and Hizballah has proved this. Despite Hamas' rigid ideological stance against Israel, cracks have begun to show. There is a debate within Hamas between the ideological level and the pragmatic one, between external Hamas in Damascus and some of the leaders of internal Hamas. The more pragmatic types argue that in order to really capitalize on its election victory, Hamas needs a period of quiet. Only thus will it be able to genuinely take control of the PA. The ideological level, led by external Hamas and headed by Khaled Meshal - which is supported by the military arm in Gaza and by Mahmoud al-Zahar, the foreign minister in the Hamas government - contends that no disaster will befall the Palestinians if the diplomatic process falls apart. The continuation of the "resistance" is more important. In their view, Israel is the one that must be pragmatic and accept the reality and Hamas' demands. Since September 8, Hamas has not taken responsibility for the Kassam rockets that have been fired at Israel. Meaning: They are not doing the firing, but they may well be supplying rockets to others. Meanwhile, Hamas' military arm says it will stop firing rockets but not halt terror attacks. In addition, nihilistic groups like the Army of Islam and the Resistance Committees, who are adopting al-Qaeda's principles, have been gaining strength. The current bloody conflicts among the Palestinians indicate once again that Hamas is far from ready to forsake its religious principles, which say there shall be no relinquishing of the Islamic holy lands upon which Israel sits. This is a problem that the Palestinians will have to resolve among themselves - because there is no chance that Israel will agree to convert to Islam.
2006-10-06 01:00:00
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