DIVISIONS:Arab public opinion has swung behind Hamas since the Israeli attacks, writes Michael Jansenin Jerusalem
ISRAEL’S GAZA offensive has widened the rift between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas, opened up splits in both the rival factions, deepened divisions between pro-western Arabs and the pan-Arab camp, and alienated Arab public opinion from rulers in the pro-western grouping.
Many influential Palestinians, including Fatah stalwarts, are furious with President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA which, these critics say, seeks to use the devastating Israeli onslaught to weaken and topple Hamas rule in Gaza.
Hatem Abdel Kader, a Fatah member of the Palestinian legislature representing Jerusalem, castigated Fatah for its silence and inaction and held its leaders responsible for “this setback” and for its “failure to play a leading role in the dangerous events taking place in Palestine”.
He complained that Fatah and the PA had “no central policy” and allowed local police officials to deal harshly with demonstrators expressing their anger over Israel’s assault on Gaza. Many Palestinians argue that Abbas has placed himself and their cause in the hands of their enemies, Israel and the US and, to a lesser extent, Europe. Abbas and the PA have “lost all authority”, stated one angry Palestinian pundit.
On the weekend, 200 Palestinian civil society and political leaders signed a document declaring their backing for the Hamas-dominated “resistance” and called for the formation of a national leadership.
Belatedly, Fatah’s executive committee, which accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza, called on every faction in Gaza to “expose” Israel’s true intentions there. But Fatah also called on them to support the bypassed Egyptian ceasefire initiative and end internal division, essentially by reinstating the PA as ruler of both the West Bank and Gaza. This call demonstrated that Fatah still does not seek reconciliation with Hamas.
The fighting exposed differences between the hawkish Hamas leaders in Damascus – who cut off dialogue with Fatah and declared an end to the June-December ceasefire – and the pragmatists in Gaza who wanted to go ahead with both. Sunday’s unilateral truce announcement from Damascus revealed that the Gaza command is now in charge.
The pan-Arab camp led by Syria and Qatar, which held a summit in Doha last Friday, gave legitimacy to Hamas and its allies by inviting them to attend, calling for Arab states to suspend ties with Israel, and declaring dead the Arab proposal to exchange normal relations with Israel for full Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967. This group, backed by Turkey and Iran, has mounted an unprecedented challenge to US-supported Egypt and Saudi Arabia which have attempted to isolate Hamas and backed the West Bank-based PA to the hilt.
Arab public opinion has swung behind Hamas and the pan-Arab camp, undermining the credibility of the leaders in Cairo, Riyadh and Ramallah. In response, Egypt has banned the broadcast of Palestinian patriotic songs and pan-Arab slogans and kept closed the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. The Saudis have adopted a low profile while the PA and Fatah have dithered.
To make matters worse for Egypt and its allies, after long negotiations on a ceasefire, Israel rebuffed Cairo by declaring a unilateral truce. A furious Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak responded by denouncing the Israeli-US-European effort to halt weapons smuggling into Gaza, an issue on which Israel declared war.
In a bid to reassert its centrality, Egypt said that its long-term ceasefire proposal is the only game in town and the sides should resume Cairo-mediated talks to stabilise the situation. But unilateralist Israel refuses to talk, even indirectly, to Hamas. Hamas, claiming victory and backed by the pan-Arab camp, is determined to stay in power in Gaza and end the Israeli siege and international blockade of the Strip.