Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Erlanger, Gaza Under Hamas: Quiet, Cut Off and Digging In, New York Times, September 8, 2007

GAZA CITY, Sept. 4 — Nearly three months after Hamas conquered the teeming streets of Gaza, a wary calm has taken hold. People stroll at all hours, car theft has practically stopped, even armed police officers are rarely seen.

After 18 months in which gun battles between Hamas and Fatah forces defined street life, Hamas has made it illegal to carry weapons in public or to fire them, even at weddings or funerals.

Tamer al-Bagga, who manages a beachside cafe, said people now patronized his business until “all hours of the night.” In June, people were hiding at home, keeping their children on the floor to avoid bullets. “Now we have security,” he said. “But with the closure, we have no money.”

Faced with Sderot and Gaza - Haaretz, September 6, 2007

The distress of Israel’s government, which is responsible for defending its citizens, periodically gives rise - and with greater force than usual this week - to desperate ideas. One such idea, which is being advocated by Minister Haim Ramon and, more guardedly, by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is hitting Gazas water and electricity networks. Stopping the flow of water and electricity is a painful and punishing step, but ostensibly not a fatal one. Its goal is to cause the Palestinian public to pressure Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop the fire.

This idea is complete nonsense. Factually speaking, cutting off water and electricity can kill. Moreover, there is no proof that making the Palestinian public suffer would make Hamas take pity on it and embark on a cease-fire. On the contrary: Hamas consistently sabotages the flow of essential goods through Gazas border terminals. What is being presented as a way to avoid war is counterproductive, immoral and illegal.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Anti-Hamas rallies staged in Gaza
Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have taken part in protests against the territory’s Hamas rulers, despite a ban on public gatherings.

About 20 people were injured in clashes after outdoor prayers were organised that turned into marches in main towns.

Protesters accuse the Islamist Hamas of violating civil liberties and using mosques to spread political propaganda.

The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool in Gaza says this is the biggest show of opposition to Hamas since it took control in June.

Shikaki, The Politics of Paralysis II: Peace Now or Hamas Later, Foreign Affairs, 1998

Palestinian society’s traditionalism makes the fundamentalists of Hamas the only credible alternative to Arafat’s center, and they feed off frustration over Israeli intransigence. If the diplomatic deadlock, graft, and illiberalism continue after Arafat, Hamas could well take over.

Hamas: Isolate or Engage? - Council on Foreign Relations

In this cfr.org online debate, Nadia Hijab, a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and Shmuel Rosner, chief U.S. correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, discuss whether or not to engage Hamas.

Hamas - Council on Foreign Relations, Updated: June 8, 2007

Hamas is the largest and most influential Palestinian militant movement. In January 2006, the group won the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) general legislative elections, defeating Fatah, the party of the PA’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, and setting the stage for a power struggle.

While it is important not to assume that Muslim hostility to Israel is simply the result of anti-Semitism, it is also important to recognize that Islamist rhetoric is often anti-Semitic.

anti-semitic-motifs-in-the-ideology-of-hizballah-and-hamas.htm

Themes borrowed from European Christendom were adapted by incorporating explicit Islamic references in them. The most important example of this process, according to Prof. Bernard Lewis, was the restating of the story of Muhammad’s relations with the Jews. “Instead of being a minor nuisance, ineffectual and unsuccessful in their plots against him,” as they were traditionally depicted, “they [the Jews] are depicted as a dark and evil force, conspiring to destroy the Prophet, and continuing as the main danger to Islam.”6 Yehoshafat Harkabi calls this trend the “Islamization of the hatred of the Jews.”7

Hostility to the State of Israel and to Zionism as an ideology arising from the Arab-Israeli conflict, while not in itself necessarily a manifestation of anti-Semitism, gradually gave rise to a deeper, irreconcilable hatred that does not differentiate between Israelis, Zionists or Jews.

Comment le monde a enterré la Palestine, par Alain Gresh, Le Monde diplomatique, juillet 2007)
Même M. Ehoud Olmert découvre soudain en M. Abbas un « partenaire » pour la paix. Sourds durant des années aux rapports accablants sur la situation de la Cisjordanie et de Gaza publiés par des institutions aussi différentes que la Banque mondiale, Amnesty International ou l’Organisation mondiale de la santé, la Maison Blanche et l’Union européenne se seraient-elles enfin sorties de leur profonde léthargie ?

Ce réveil subit a été suscité par la victoire sans appel du Hamas à Gaza. Pourtant, ni les Etats-Unis ni Israël n’avaient lésiné sur les moyens militaires donnés au Fatah pour l’emporter, autorisant à plusieurs reprises le passage d’armes destinées à la garde présidentielle comme à la Sécurité préventive (1). Rien n’y a fait. La désertion de la plupart des responsables militaires du Fatah (MM. Mohammed Dahlan, Rachid Abou Shabak, Samir Masharawi), qui ont préféré se terrer en Cisjordanie ou en Egypte plutôt que d’être aux côtés de leurs troupes, n’est qu’un des éléments d’explication d’une cuisante déroute. L’incapacité du Fatah à se réformer, à abandonner son statut de parti-Etat d’un Etat qui n’existe pas pour celui de force politique « normale » en est un autre : népotisme, corruption, clanisme continuent de gangrener l’organisation fondée par Yasser Arafat.

Hass on Gaza, Haaretz, 8/29/2007
The shortage of raw materials has halted 95 percent of all construction, which is valued at $160 million. About 85 percent of all industry is closed down temporarily and 70,000 workers have been laid off.

Reidel Hamas - jumped, provoked, and pushed, bitterlemons-international.org, 8/16/2007
So a heady mix of Hamas firebrands eager for war, the barely concealed American and Israeli desire to reverse the results of the 2006 elections and pressure from both the Shi’ite and Sunni global jihadist centers created the explosive mix last June. Finally, of course, there was also the incompetence of the Fateh leadership. How much each factor alone counted is impossible to know; the combination is what mattered. The question now is, will Hamas be able to exploit its posture as the “real” voice of Palestine to undermine a “quisling” Fateh in the West Bank, where it is even more dependent on Israeli and US support and especially IDF bayonets to survive?

Le Monde.fr, August 28, 2007
Des centaines de palettes de bouteilles de boissons gazeuses sont entreposées sous l’immense hangar de l’usine Pepsi Cola, à Jabaliya, dans le nord de la bande de Gaza. En temps normal, ces stocks sont écoulés en quelques heures auprès des épiceries du mince territoire palestinien. Mais depuis deux mois et demi, aucun camion de livraison n’est sorti du hangar, car les bouteilles sont vides. Le blocus de la bande de Gaza imposé par l’armée israélienne à la suite du coup de force du Hamas, le 14 juin, a en effet épuisé les réserves de l’usine en dioxyde de carbone (CO2). Faute de ce gaz nécessaire à la confection de toute boisson à bulles, les bouteilles n’ont pas pu être remplies.

“J’ai le sucre, les étiquettes, les bouteilles, les composants chimiques, les bouchons et les cartons, fulmine Mohamed Yazegi, le patron de cette entreprise familiale, ouverte en 1960. L’armée israélienne sait très bien qu’avec un seul container de CO2, je pourrais me remettre à travailler pendant deux semaines. Mais parce que les dirigeants israéliens sont décidés à mettre le Hamas à genoux, ils refusent de laisser rentrer mon gaz. J’ai dû licencier 200 de mes employés.”

Israël, ça n’existe pas. Ce n’est qu’une grande colonie peuplée par des clans mafieux. La télévision palestinienne, pareil : ce n’est qu’une chaîne aux ordres du Fatah. Nous, au moins, on ne triche pas. On représente le Hamas et on le dit.”

Hamas optimism vs. Fatah despair | csmonitor.com

International Crisis Group - After Gaza

Gaza jobs meltdown: an ice-cream firm’s tale | csmonitor.com