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The
process initiated by Hamas' military takeover of the Gaza Strip
continues to deepen. Despite the talk of renewed negotiations between
Hamas and Fatah, which rules the West Bank, and a possible renewal of a
unity government of all the Palestinian territories recognized by both
Fatah and Hamas, the division between the two areas nominally under the
administration of the Palestinian Authority is becoming hardened.
Each
organization is repressing the other in the territory it controls. Of
course, given the hostility of Israel and its imperialist big brothers
to Hamas, most of the reporting in the big world press has been about
the Islamic organization's repression of its allegedly secularist rival
in Gaza.
Actually
the characterization of Fatah as secularist is an oversimplification.
Fatah's leaders have been quite willing to play the Islamist card when
they thought it was politically expedient. In the conflict in Gaza,
Fatah has not hesitated to use religious sectarian arguments against
Hamas, denouncing it as contaminated with Shiism because of its
alliance with the Lebanese Hezbullah and Iran.
In
fact, Fatah has been organizing demonstrations against Hamas in the
Gaza Strip in the form of public prayer meetings on Fridays. Hamas has
justified breaking up these rallies on the basis that outdoor prayer
violates religious rules. Of course, the dispute is hardly theological.
On the other hand, the Fatah activists who have participated in these
rallies seem to have sought deliberately to provoke a reaction from the
Hamas security forces.
In
breaking up the Fatah rallies, Hamas has also tried to prevent
journalists working for foreign media from reporting them. An article
in the Sept. 4 New York Times noted that Hamas has been blowing hot and
cold in its attitude to the foreign press: "Hamas seems
confused
about how to quash Fatah protests and simultaneously deal with the news
media. Trying to nurture a reputation for honesty and legal behavior
since they conquered Gaza in bloody fighting in June, Hamas’ leaders
promise journalists freedom of action
while
the police intimidate them."
Hamas
has also been blowing hot and cold about its policy toward Fatah. Some
leaders denounce the rival organization en bloc as corrupt and sold to
the Americans and Israel. Others say that they respect Fatah overall as
a national liberation organization and are hostile only to a corrupt
and capitulationist element within it.
These
contradictions undoubtedly reflect political differences within an
organization that has been built on religious appeals rather political
program. But they also reflect a search for political formulas that can
unite the Palestinian people.
One
of the main Fatah leaders, a long-term prisoner in Israel jails, Marwan
Barghouti, has stressed the need for a reorganization of the Fatah
leadership and warned about the appeal that Hamas can have on the West
Bank also. Barghouti is far more popular with the Fatah fighters than
the Palestinian Authority president, Abbas.
Even
New York Times correspondent Steven Erlanger recognized in a Sept. 8
dispatch that the Hamas takeover has brought security to the Gaza
Strip, ending the chaos and low-level civil war that preceded it. But
at the same time, the isolation of the territory by Israel and its
imperialist backers has deepened the impoverishment of the Palestinian
people and fanned fears of an Israeli military reoccupation.
Israel
has been continuing and increasing its "targeted strikes,"
killing dozens of Palestinians - innocent bystanders as well as fighters.
The Palestinian organizations try to strike back with mostly symbolic
missile attacks against the Israeli towns closest to the border, mainly
Sderot. These missiles create a general atmosphere of insecurity but
rarely do serious harm. The Palestinian militants, however, had an
unusual stroke of luck early in the second week of September when a
homemade Qassam rocket hit a poorly protected Israeli military base,
injuring more than 60 Israeli soldiers, some badly.
The
incident created a political storm in Israel. The furor was mainly
against the Israeli military command for its failure to fortify the
base. But the political upset also raised expectations that Israel
might undertake a major ground operation against Gaza.
There
were some ground operations, but none notably bigger in scale than
previous ones. The principal response was to declare Gaza a
"hostile entity" on Sept.18. The essential meaning of this
was to open the way for more collective punishments of the Palestinian
people, such as cuts in the electricity supply.
It
seems in reality that Israel has no reason to undertake a military
reoccupation of the territory.
That would not stop the rocket attacks, as the war against
Hezbullah showed, and it would mean a drastic escalation of Israeli
losses. It is hardly likely that the Israeli rulers think that the
price is worth any very hypothetical gains. Gaza is effectively
isolated, and the Israeli rulers can look forward to wearing down the
Palestinian people eventually.
Erlanger's
dispatch in the Sept. 8 New York Times noted that Hamas has militarized
Gaza in expectation of a full-scale Israeli assault. That would
increase Israeli casaulties if Israel does make such an attack. But if it does not, the main effect
of such preparations will be to further exhaust the Palestinians. No
civilian population can endure militarization forever, especially one
as vulnerable as the Palestinians.
In
all, the Palestinian movement remains caught in a deadly and tightening
impasse. It is more and more necessary for it to find new political
strategies. It needs, most fundamentally, to find its way back to the
perspective of achieving unity of all the Palestinian territories,
including those occupied by the Zionists - a united, democratic
Palestine in which all can live together on the basis of equality.
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