Rift Between Hamas and Fatah Grows After Gaza

[question everything]

Saturday, Feb. 07, 2009
Rift Between Hamas and Fatah Grows After Gaza
By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem
TIME

Reconciling Hamas with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is viewed as a precondition for rebuilding Gaza, but the prospect of unity isn't helped by the news that the Islamist militants are accusing the president's men of collaborating with the recent Israeli offensive — and punishing them by summary execution or shooting off their kneecaps. The Islamists and Abbas' secular Fatah movement have struggled for control of the Palestinian territories since Hamas won the elections of January 2006, but after Israel's 22-day pummeling of Gaza, their quarrel has become intensely personal. Hamas officials have accused Abbas' former national security chief, Mohamed Dahlan, of colluding with Israelis in advance of the invasion in a bid to weaken Hamas' resistance.


(snip)

Hamas officials in Gaza say they will not interfere with any international agency that wants to help rebuild Gaza. But the inter-Palestinian tug-of-war over aid has already begun: On Wednesday, Hamas police stormed a United Nations warehouse and commandeered blankets and emergency supplies, claiming that the U.N. was relying on pro-Fatah agencies who were only distributing aid to their own supporters. The U.N. on Friday suspended deliveries until it has guarantees that it can distribute aid unfettered.

So far, Hamas has only offered a macabre concession to Fatah. The bodies of those it has executed on suspicion of collaboration, according to one Gazan close to Hamas, were then carted to the battlefield so that their families might believe they had been "martyred" in the battle against the Israelis. But in the claustrophobic world of Gaza's clans and families, nobody is under any illusions about how and why they died. But those executed in Gaza are not the only casualties from the fallout of Israel's offensive: President Abbas himself and his U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations with the Israelis have also suffered. Abbas' behavior during the conflict, when he tried to score points against Hamas instead of rallying support against Israel's assault, has shrunk his already low credibility among Palestinians and the Arab world.

At the start of Israel's offensive, one of Abbas' top aides said Hamas was "110 per cent" to blame for the Gaza attack — an unpopular, if not suicidal, stance among Palestinians, whose ire was directed at Israel. Even as the civilian death toll climbed, Abbas delayed several days before criticizing the Israeli offensive. In the West Bank, which Abbas controls by dint of the presence of the Israeli army, his security forces cracked down brutally on fellow Palestinians protesting the Israeli offensive. Palestinians ask why Abbas did not go to Gaza during the fighting to show solidarity with its residents, or organize blood or food help for Gaza's victims. Says Diana Buttu, a lawyer and ex-adviser on the Palestinian team that negotiated with Israelis, "The problems of Palestine are much bigger than Fatah versus Hamas, but Abbas tried to turn it into that. He couldn't see beyond the petty differences, even as his people were dying in Gaza."

(snip)


http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1877640,00.html

[excess_3]

1. c'mon folks, these two gangs are rivals

the most ruthless will win.

[bemildred]

2. Maybe this is why Marwan is finally getting out. nt

[bemildred]

3. Hamas's Zahar: We don't want to replace PLO, we want to join it

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar on Sunday played down reports that his Islamist militant group wanted to establish a new umbrella body to replace the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the sole representative of the Palestinians.

Zahar told Al-Jazeera television that remarks by Hamas's political leader, Khaled Meshal, that some Palestinian groups were discussing the formation of a "national steering committee" as an alternative to the PLO had been misinterpreted.

"Meshal's remarks about the resistance's program were interpreted by to be an alternative to the PLO, and we didn't say that," Zahar, who is based in Gaza, said in Cairo in an interview with the Doha-based broadcaster.

The PLO has represented the Palestinians since 1964 but the more recently created Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad have never been part of it despite a 2005 agreement to bring them under its fold.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062479.html

[Vegasaurus]

4. Hamas has a funny way of showing their desire for unity

considering that they are murdering anyone in Gaza from Fatah who they think is a collaborator or anyone who doesn't agree with their militant views.

That doesn't seem like unity is the goal.