Shavuah tov! Just when I thought nothing would ever change in this Middle Eastern morass, an apparently cathartic event took place: Hamas conquered the 130 sq. miles of the Gaza Strip in such a brutal, senseless way that everybody and her dog has now rejected Hamas. It seems almost as if the world had been waiting to denounce the fanaticism and violence espoused by Islamicist groups like Hamas, and the Palestinian-on-Palestinian carnage this past week in Gaza that killed at least 120 and put 550+ people in hospital has provided enough clarity for the world, and most importantly, for the Palestinians to finally speak out. Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas have dug a hole so deep that it is hard to imagine them getting out of it anytime soon. How do you start a civil war against supposedly your own people and a government of which you are part and then think that you will continue to function as part of that government? Haniyeh can claim all he wants that Abbas acted hastily in firing him, but clearly it will not now be business as usual. The Palestinians have a new Prime Minister and a new Cabinet and the world has rushed to offer support.

Hamas began in Gaza in 1987 as a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. It's charter refers to ( The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ), the notorious antisemitic hoax and forgery, and calls for the total destruction of Israel. How does Hamas imagine that this will be achieved? "There is no solution for the Palestinian questions except through Jihad." Canada, the EU, Israel, Japan and the US list Hamas as a terrorist organization. It is likewise banned in Jordan, Australia, the UK -- and as of this afternoon, by the Palestinian Authority itself. Its name is an Arabic acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية "Islamic Resistance Movement," and the acronym means zeal in Arabic. In Biblical Hebrew , חָמָס   hamas means violence, evil-doing.

Various leaders have been warning about the possibility of the creation of a "Hamastan" in the Gaza Strip ~ and that seems to be what we now have on our doorstep. Why "Hamastan?" Gaza has become another violent moon orbiting Iran. Haniyeh, the deposed Palestinian Prime Minister and local leader of Hamas, reports to Hamas leader Mashaal in Damascus. Mashaal was a co-founder of Hamas, has been chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau since 1996 and currently lives in Damascus. Hamas gets the bulk of its funding from Iran, private donors in Saudi Arabic and from ex-patriate Palestinians - as well as enjoying the support of Syria.

The organization is responsible for terrorist attacks including, beginning in 1993, scores of suicide bombings. Ten days shy of a year ago, Hamas soldiers crossed into Israel from Gaza and captured then-19 year old Gilad Shalit. They've allowed no outside party, not even the Red Cross, access to Gilad to confirm his well-being -- or even that he is alive. A few hours ago, Abu Osameh al-Mo'ti, a Hamas leader in Tehran, announced that the BBC journalist Alan Johnston who was kidnapped in Gaza three months ago would be released in the next few hours "in a show of good will." Is Hamas really deluded enough that they believe they can abduct people and then, win points for releasing them after months in captivity?!

Gilad Shalit


Alan Johnston


Now, the international community (and, it seems, the bulk of the Palestinian community) has abandoned Hamas following the organization's brutal take over of Gaza. Yesterday, Hamas also destroyed an important Palestinian symbol when its gunmen broke into Chairman Arafat's home in Gaza, looted and destroyed the place, stole his Nobel Peace Prize and took his widow's evening dresses. Effectively, Ismail Haniyeh and his well-armed, well-disciplined band of thugs have isolated themselves from the West Bank and the Palestinian people.

Beating a quick retreat from Gaza to the West Bank, Fatah needed to regroup and pronto. I credit Mr. Abbas with making the best choice of his own career in appointing Dr. Fayyad as the new Palestinian Prime Minister. Hamas had considered doing so earlier when they came to power, but one of Dr. Fayyad's conditions was that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist. President Abbas fired Haniyeh, appointed Dr. Fayyad in his place, outlawed Hamas and swore in a new Palestinian cabinet.

Salam Fayyad
سلام فياض

I find myself guardedly optimistic about the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad. Dr. Fayyad has a PhD in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. He spent 20 years living in the States working for the World Bank. He is reportedly direct, honest and modest. I can only hope that the Palestinians like him as much as Israel and the rest of the world does. There was ( a good article about him ) in Haaretz back in April that is worth a quick read.

Ahmad Bahar, the acting head of the Palestinian Legislative Council just announced a few minutes ago that Hamas is the only legitimate Palestinian government. This is the same man who gave a public address on Palestinian TV on 20 April 2007 calling Jews "a cancerous lump in the heart of the Arab nation." He advocated killing all Jews and Americans, saying: “This is Islam, that was ahead of its time with regards to human rights in the treatment of prisoners, but our people was afflicted by the cancerous lump, that is the Jews, in the heart of the Arab nation… Be certain that America is on its way to disappear, America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan, America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated in Lebanon and Palestine… Make us victorious over the infidel people… Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies… Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don’t leave even one.” The Palestinian Legislative Council still espouses Pan-Arabism. Come on, guys! Even Qadhafi has abandoned that one! They also proclaim Islam the national religion of Palestine and Shariya (Islamic Law) as the basis of law. Good grief. Somebody is not reading the writing on the wall.

Tags: abbas, alan johnston, fayyad, gaza, gilad shalit, hamas, haniyeh, mashal, سلام فياض
Current Mood: strangely optimistic

As I get ready for Shabbat, I am thinking over the events of the week. The Palestinians have descended into civil war, committing attrocities against one another of the most heinous sort. The conflict is basically between the largely secular Fatah faction which has been dominant since the 1960s and a radical Islamicist faction, Hamas that is an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and backed by Iran and Syria which has only come to the fore in the last few years. The Palestinian Authority is headed up by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyyeh. Last night, Mr. Abbas fired Mr. Haniyyeh and disolved the government. Today, Mr. Abbas appointed Palestinian independent Salam Fayyad as the new Palestinian Prime Minister. He had been serving as the Finance Minister. Mr. Haniyeh declared that Mr. Abbas had made "a hasty decision" and that the Hamas-led government would continue with business as usual. Hamas, in principal spelled out in the Charter (which also, by the way, refers to the anti-semitic track, Protocols of the Elders of Zion) and in practice, calls and works openly for the destruction of Israel.

Business as usual, apparently, includes conquering all of the Gaza Strip, taking over Mr. Abbas's presidential compound and turning it into a big mosque for special celebratory Friday prayers, murdering prisoners in the street in front of their wives and children, throwing captives, who are first bound hands and feet, from tall buildings to their deaths, and then, holding a "victory parade" in which people are injured or killed. In an internecine war, Palestinian against Palestinian, who exactly does Mr. Haniyeh who is/was the Palestinianm ie. not just the Hamas - Prime Minister - think he has conquered? This is yet another tragedy for the Palestinian people, and a self-inflicted one. It is also the second recent triumph for Iranian and Syrian backed Palestinian Islamicist militias. The Lebanese army is having no luck controlling Fatah al-Islam (an Islamicist jihadi group closely tied to Damascus and Tehran).

Ehud Barak, who was elected this week to head the Labor party, defeating Ami Ayalon (and, in the previous round, Amir Peretz) has already been appointed Israel's next Defense Minister and is scheduled to be sworn in on Monday. With tensions so high, newly elected octogenarian President Shimon Peres canceled his trip to France and Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni is cutting her European trip short to return. Mr. Olmert is going to the States and rushed Mr. Barak's appointment as Defense Minister (replacing the inept Mr. Peretz) "in light of the tense security situation and the collapse of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip." I don't care for the current Israeli government especially, but in Israel no one worries for a minute about masked, gun-toting bands of thugs taking over.

The United States seems to want to contain the Gazan "Hamastan" and bolster Fatah in the West Bank. It couldn't take much to show Palestinians that they will fare better under Fatah leadership than under that of Hamas. It appears, now that Gaza has fallen to Hamas, that the West Bank will be run by Fatah. The international community, hesitant about funding a Hamas-led government, may now see fit to bolster Fatah. Egypt, wary of its own fundamentalists, has pulled its diplomatic mission out of Gaza following the Hamas take over. Mission head Major-General Burhan Hammad left with his entire staff in protest.

May a sudden hush of calm sweep over us all here in the region. Shabbat Shalom

Tags: abbas, civil war, fatah, fatah al-islam, hamas, hamastan, haniyyeh, palestinians
Current Mood: grimly pessimistic