MIDDLE EAST: The Tel Aviv suicide bombing has pushed the Palestinian government to react as if it were still in opposition, writes Michael Jansen
Hamas yesterday adopted a defiant attitude towards international condemnation of Monday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. "Israel alone is responsible for the current escalation," asserted Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas's politburo based in Damascus.
Palestinian interior minister Siad Siyam, declared: "Our people have the will and the right to defend themselves and to confront as much as they can the arrogances of the occupation." Ahead of the Tel Aviv incident, Hamas said it would not detain anyone mounting armed attacks on Israel until the occupation ends.
These statements seem to contradict the effort made by prime minister Ismail Haniyeh to project a moderate line. He recommitted Hamas to the unilateral suspension of attacks on Israel adopted a year ago and said Hamas is prepared to enter into a long-term truce and negotiate with Israel once it withdraws from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. During the past year Hamas-run municipalities have co-ordinated with the Israeli administration, demonstrating that Hamas can, on the practical level, work with Israel.
The Tel Aviv bombing, the first since Hamas took office, seems to have prompted the movement's leaders to react as though they were still in opposi- tion rather than in government.
Analysts suggest that since Hamas expected to win a large number of seats in the legislature but not the majority needed to form a government, Hamas has still not yet come to terms with the responsibilities of rule.
While Hamas spokesmen in exile, like Abu Marzouk, are often more hardline than those living in the West Bank and Gaza, there seems to be a common line on this attack. One reason for convergence could be the decision by the US, Europe, and now Japan to halt funding for the authority because of Hamas's refusal to end violence, recognise Israel and accept obligations undertaken by the PLO. Hamas is both angered and unsettled by the authority's debt of $1.3 billion (€1.05 billion) and inability to pay March salaries of 164,700 employees.
The other reason is Hamas's belief that Israel has no intention of negotiating a reasonable settlement with the Palestinians.
Following Hamas's victory in the parliamentary poll, Mr Marzouk stated Hamas's objections to the Oslo process. "The past decade's 'peace process' has led to a dramatic rise in the expansion of illegal settlements and land confiscation.
"The realities of occupation include humiliating checkpoints, home demolitions, open-ended administrative detentions, extrajudicial killings and thousands of dead civilians." He held that the election was a point of departure: "A new 'road map' is needed to lead us away from the path of checkpoints and walls and on to the path" different than that taken by Fatah and the PLO.
But the new Kadima-led Israeli government is determined to unilaterally define the borders of the Jewish state by evacuating isolated West Bank colonies while retaining settlement blocs, East Jerusalem, military areas, and the Jordan Valley, leaving the Palestinians unconnected enclaves rather than a viable state. Kadima's line does not give Hamas the assurance it will have a say in the fate of the Palestinian homeland.