It won't last

[Behind the Aegis]

Last update - 09:47 24/04/2006


It won't last

By Danny Rubinstein

Several telephone conversations with acquaintances in the Gaza Strip have given me the impression that the appointment of Jamal Abu Samhadana as inspector general in Hamas' Interior Ministry and the establishment of a new security force under his command have won broad public support in Gaza. Abu Samhadana is very popular in the Strip, in part because of the terror attacks he has carried out and which many people in Gaza think led Israel to withdraw from the Strip. He was a prominent activist in the Fatah movement and gathered young people from other political groups into an organization called the Popular Resistance Committees, which has carried out many of the terror attacks.

If Abu Samhadana succeeds in establishing the new security force - despite the opposition of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - his job will be to help the police to impose law and order and to restrain the militias and the gangs running around the streets of Gaza. Lawlessness is an important issue in Gaza, no less so than the financial crisis threatening to bring the Strip to the verge of hunger. Every important clan, every neighborhood, every political group has a kind of private army.

The Palestinian interior minister, Said Siyam, who appointed Abu Samhadana, wants the new security force to absorb soldiers from the various groups - including the Iz al-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, who from now on will be an inseparable part of the Palestinian Authority's official security forces. This means they will get salaries like the rest of the PA police officers and soldiers.

In an appearance at the Al-Omari Mosque in Gaza over the weekend, Siyam said the new security force is supposed to stop the use of weapons in internal conflicts and attacks on PA institutions, such as armed gangs' takeover of government ministries and property. Only about a week ago, members of the Al-Sha'ar clan from Rafah grabbed hold of property and buildings that remained in the evacuated settlement of Rafiah Yam, and when Palestinian police officers attempted to intervene, a gun battle erupted, causing casualties.

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[bemildred]

1. Get's the issue right anyway.

The issue is security and order, whether Hamas can establish itself in power.
It's clear the Israeli government wants to prevent that, and there is a good
deal of propaganda and opinion being bandied about on the subject, but facts
are harder to come by. One could also agree that there are factions in the
Palestinian body politic that agree with the Israeli government on the need to
delegitimize Hamas, which will make Hamas' task all the harder.

This fellow admits that Samhadana is popular, which goes a long way to explain
why he was chosen, without popular support he would have no chance at all.

[ShalachEtAmi]

2. Hamas promised during the election campaign to provide security.

They can only do this by getting all the weapons off the streets (Fatah will not cooperate) and stopping the daily Quassam attacks into Israel(They don`t want to)

So the opinion is correct `It won't last `.