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The Reconciliation Agreement Allows Hamas to Re-enter the West Bank

(Times of Israel) Ehud Yaari - Hamas leaders have now changed tack toward transplanting the Hizbullah model from Lebanon to the Palestinian territories. This means integrating into the general political system while retaining independent, well-equipped armed forces and striving to maintain control of Gaza through its existing grip on local bureaucracy, its wide network of social institutions, and its 20,000 well-trained military cadres and security personnel. Outgoing Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh described the new formula best, declaring this week: "We leave the government but stay in power....We give up the chair but not the role we play." The group's Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades will not be disarmed or come under any PA supervision and will continue to grow as a powerful "resistance." Hamas seems determined to exploit the reconciliation agreement as a means of resuscitating its political organization and clandestine terrorist activities in the West Bank. The revival of open Hamas activities in the West Bank is affecting the PA's security organs, whose officers no longer intervene in Hamas gatherings. Hamas' resurgence in the West Bank is especially noted in the refugee camps outside the main cities. By this time next year Hamas could have a solid foothold in the West Bank and a veto power over PA and PLO decisions. Western countries quick to endorse the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation should be aware of what is really happening here: Instead of the PA regaining its "southern provinces" in Gaza, it is in fact Hamas re-entering the "northern provinces" in the West Bank. The writer is an International Fellow with The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a Middle East commentator for Israel's Channel Two television.
2014-06-05 00:00:00
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