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Hamas clinging to Gaza as unity remains elusive
Efforts to reunify the Palestinians behind one leadership appear to have hit a dead end: Hamas leaders ruling the Gaza Strip have concluded that subordinating themselves to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be wasting a golden opportunity offered by the Arab Spring.The thinking, as revealed in interviews with top Hamas officials, is that the regional rise of political Islam in the wake of the past year's uprisings means this is the time for their Islamic militant group to dominate. As part of that hard line, some say Gaza abandoned by Israeli settlers and soldiers in 2005 should steer Palestinian politics instead of the West Bank, where Israel holds far more sway. "We want the West Bank to come under the Gaza umbrella, simply because Gaza is liberated, and the government there is elected," said a top Hamas official, referring to 2006 parliamentary elections that produced a short-lived Hamas-led government in the West Bank and Gaza. After Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, the Western-backed Abbas dismissed that government and appointed his own in the West Bank. A unity deal brokered by Qatar last month was to end five years of separate governments Hamas in Gaza and Abbas in the West Bank. Under the agreement, Abbas is to lead an interim government of independent technocrats for several months, until elections. As interim prime minister, he would regain at least a measure of control in Gaza. The top Hamas leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, signed the deal without consulting with the movement, pitting him against much of the Hamas leadership in Gaza. It was part of Mashaal's attempt to steer Hamas away from longtime patrons Iran and Syria and closer to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which markets a more tolerant Islam and has urged Hamas to moderate. Mashaal's pledge to Abbas last month to halt violence is part of that shift. While the Brotherhood has urged Mashaal to make concessions for the sake of reconciliation, Gaza's Hamas leaders believe they shouldn't be asked to share control at a time when their movement is finally breaking out of its isolation. In a test of wills, it increasingly appears that the Gazans will prevail since implementing a unity deal would require their cooperation on the ground. Posted by: tipper 2012-03-20 |
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