What every good civil war needs is two sides that are evenly balanced. Otherwise its over too soon and where is the fun in that!
Palestinian officials speaking at a meeting in the Muqata this week presented a grim picture of the Palestinian Authority’s situation in the Gaza Strip, highlighting in particular the PA’s lack of control over many activists from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing. Militant Palestinian groups already have a reputation for abusing the population of the West Bank and Gaza and scorning PA security chiefs. But the reports from Monday’s meeting, which was attended by PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and PA security force chiefs, are even more disturbing for the PA and for Arafat in particular. According to the reports, a significant segment of armed Fatah leaders in Gaza answer to senior Hamas officials. These Fatah leaders are not even taking the phone calls of the leadership in Ramallah.
| "Mahmoud's not in, but if you leave a message I'm sure he'll get back to you..." |
This is the situation in several parts of Gaza, according to reports, including the Jabaliya refugee camp and the neighboring neighborhood of Jabaliya in the north of the Strip, where the two suicide bombers who carried out the attack in the Ashdod port came from. It is also the case in the Dir al-Balah area in the center of the Strip, Abasan to the south of it and the Dahaniyeh region in southern Gaza. Two major groups that have effectively stopped operating under Fatah are the Abu Reish Brigades, which has been carrying out attacks in Gaza regularly over the last few weeks in conjunction with Hamas activists, and the Saladin Alayubi group, the armed wing of an organization that had been considered closely linked to Arafat. It has only recently become known that some members of this group now refuse to take instructions from Arafat. Although they have not declared an overt revolt against him, their actions indicate that they have crossed over to Hamas, whose leaders understand that recruiting other militants can help Hamas widen its power base in Gaza and break down Fatah loosening hold on the Gaza Strip.
In some cases, as in Dir al-Balah, the Hamas-Fatah connection was made when Fatah and Hamas activists met at the Islamic University of Gaza, a Hamas stronghold. In the Jabaliya region, Fatah and Hamas men know each other through family or neighborhood ties. The recruitment of Fatah activists is expected to significantly help Hamas if the Palestinian Authority decides to take action against it in Gaza, as well as in the case of local elections in Gaza at some future point. Half an hour after Sunday’s terror attack at Ashdod port, a man known as Abu Qusay, who said he was an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades activist in the Gaza Strip, appeared on Hezbollah television station Al-Manar to announce the names of the suicide bombers who had carried out the attack. The port attack was the apex of a series of terror attacks carried out by both Hamas and Fatah. As Abu Qusay said, "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades carry out the instructions of the true leadership of the Palestinian nation, and not the instructions of the people in Ramallah who have special interests and privileges."
About 10 recognized armed Fatah-linked groups and several smaller, family-based groups operate in the Gaza Strip. Mapping out where their loyalties lie is complex. Some of them, like that of Samir Masharawi, a senior Fatah member and preventative security service man close to former security affairs minister Mohammed Dahlan, are waiting out the situation in Gaza, trying to hold onto their power. Others, like that of Ahmad Halas, Fatah secretary-general in the Strip, are maintaining overt loyalty to Arafat. Both have issued startling reports to Fatah headquarters in Ramallah of Hamas’ recruitment of Fatah activists. Last week, Masharawi said Fatah wants a "declaration of honor", an agreement between Fatah and Hamas that will define the division of power in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal. His comments primarily indicate the weakness of the traditional Fatah leadership in the Strip and its inability to control what’s going on within Fatah ranks. During a visit to the Muqata, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman demanded that Arafat maintain law and order in Gaza as a precondition to Egypt’s readiness to deploy forces along the Gaza-Egypt border. This reflected the Egyptian leadership’s concern that, in the absence of PA and Fatah control of the Strip, Egypt will have no one to deal with in Gaza after an Israeli withdrawal. Palestinian sources said Suleiman asked Arafat to give Dahlan broad authority in Gaza so as to reach this level of control. Arafat has yet to comply.
The UN were primary instigators of this whole situation when they designated Arafat the ’sole legitimate respresentative of the Palestinian people’. Let them sort it out. Better still Gaza is an ideal location for the United Nations headquarters. Let them see the results of their tireless work up close. |