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| Middle East |
| NY Times chats up Hamas Bigs |
| 2002-04-04 |
The political leaders, as they call themselves, are obviously prosperous and live in large, comfortable homes in Gaza City with big families. The exception is Sheik Yassin, who uses a wheelchair and lives in a compound in the slums of the city with guards, assistants and office workers. Dr. Zahar, a surgeon, has a table tennis set in his vast living room, for his seven children. The leaders insist that they are not involved in directing specific attacks. But they say they do decide when their followers should attack and when they should back off. Last fall, just after Sept. 11, the steering committee decided that "our resistance in Israel might be confused with what was happened in the U.S.," said Mr. Abu Shanab, the engineer. So the suicide bombing and other attacks were stopped. "It lasted three weeks," said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the fourth leader. But then after a particularly bloody day in Gaza during which Israelis killed several Palestinians, Dr. Rantisi added, the attacks resumed. Dr. Rantisi, who appears in public more often than any of the others, said that, to generate attacks, he makes public statements that are heard by his followers, as he did recently when he said in a television interview: "The gates of resistance are open totally." Those statements are heard by Hamas's military wing, he says, "and they listen because we are the political leaders." Some analysts here suggest that the leaders' roles are actually more direct. During the 45-minute interview in Sheik Yassin's compound, for example, aides twice brought him urgent news about developments in Ramallah, and he issued clear, direct orders. The goals of Hamas are straightforward. As Sheik Yassin put it, "our equation does not focus on a cease-fire; our equation focuses on an end to the occupation." By that he means an end to the Jewish occupation of historical Palestine. Hamas wants Israeli withdrawal from all of the West Bank and Gaza, the dismantling of all Israeli settlements and full right of return for the four million Palestinians who live in other states. After that, the Jews could remain, living "in an Islamic state with Islamic law," Dr. Zahar said. "From our ideological point of view, it is not allowed to recognize that Israel controls one square meter of historic Palestine." And there we have it. Not only the ultimate plan for an Islamic Palestinian state, but also the fat cats at the top. These boys aren't living in poverty - try putting a ping-pong table in your living room and seeing how much space is left. I don't imagine Drs. Rantisi and Zahar spend an awful lot of time in their practices, nor that Engineer Abu Shanab spends a lot of time building bridges and roads. Yet they all live very nicely, thank you, off the generous donations of the The Steering Committee would be the top, and directly under it will be found regional controllers, connected to the operational cells by runners. These will be not only boomers and gunnies, but also political activists, bean counters, procurement centers, and any number of other functions that go into making an army. At least two layers have to be taken out at once to break the organization because of the redundant lines of control. And the layout isn't real susceptible to being broken up by military operations such as are going on now. Another argument in favor of my idea for the 228th Hit Man Division. That's the only way a war against them can be won. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |