Hamas anniversary
Hamas held a major demonstration in Gaza on Saturday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its founding there by Sheikh Yassin. According to Hamas it was attended by 250,000 people but according to Fatah only 50,000. If you accept the first figure it was a great success, but of course Hamas being a dictatorial regime, most of the people were brought in. If you believe the Fatah figure it was a big failure.
At the same time, Hamas arrested two leaders of Fatah in Gaza, including a close aide to PM Salam Fayyad, Omar Ghul, who tried to sneak in to attend his mother's funeral. On the West Bank, some 40 Hamas activists were detained by Fatah and warned not to carry out any pro-Hamas demonstrations for the 20th anniversary there.
What was most chilling was the content of the speeches at the Hamas rally. Mushir al-Masri opened his speech with the chilling threat "Jews, we have already dug your graves!" A Hamas spokesman Osama al-Mazini vowed that "Hamas will never recognize Israel!" and Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader living in exile in Damascus who spoke to the crowd from there, vowed that there would be a third, fourth and continuing intifadas until the victory of the Palestinians in their war with the Jews. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas PM, pointed to the victories of "the resistance" so far, namely, the forced Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005, the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Schalit, and the current "defeat" of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today the so-called "Donor Conference" is taking place in Paris, where over 80 countries are participating, many of them donating money to make up the b$5.55 that the US wants to collect there for the building up of the West Bank under Fatah Pres. Abbas, with its own contribution of m$550. However, it may be a case of throwing more good money after bad. Is there any evidence that the PA is capable of assimilating and using this amount of money responsibly, without wholesale corruption and stealing? The process is certainly not transparent. It is also not certain that some of this money won't reach Hamas.
Many Arab countries only pledge small amounts of money, not consistent with their fervent political support for the Palestinians, and then fail to deliver it. This may be because they want the situation to continue to fester and/or because they are playing both sides of the street, pledging a small amount and not delivering it so they can say to Hamas that they really are not fully supporting Abbas and the Fatah. Egypt is certainly guilty of this, dealing with both Hamas (allowing smuggling of arms to Gaza) and Fatah (supporting Abbas politically) at the same time.
At the same time, Hamas arrested two leaders of Fatah in Gaza, including a close aide to PM Salam Fayyad, Omar Ghul, who tried to sneak in to attend his mother's funeral. On the West Bank, some 40 Hamas activists were detained by Fatah and warned not to carry out any pro-Hamas demonstrations for the 20th anniversary there.
What was most chilling was the content of the speeches at the Hamas rally. Mushir al-Masri opened his speech with the chilling threat "Jews, we have already dug your graves!" A Hamas spokesman Osama al-Mazini vowed that "Hamas will never recognize Israel!" and Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader living in exile in Damascus who spoke to the crowd from there, vowed that there would be a third, fourth and continuing intifadas until the victory of the Palestinians in their war with the Jews. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas PM, pointed to the victories of "the resistance" so far, namely, the forced Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005, the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Schalit, and the current "defeat" of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today the so-called "Donor Conference" is taking place in Paris, where over 80 countries are participating, many of them donating money to make up the b$5.55 that the US wants to collect there for the building up of the West Bank under Fatah Pres. Abbas, with its own contribution of m$550. However, it may be a case of throwing more good money after bad. Is there any evidence that the PA is capable of assimilating and using this amount of money responsibly, without wholesale corruption and stealing? The process is certainly not transparent. It is also not certain that some of this money won't reach Hamas.
Many Arab countries only pledge small amounts of money, not consistent with their fervent political support for the Palestinians, and then fail to deliver it. This may be because they want the situation to continue to fester and/or because they are playing both sides of the street, pledging a small amount and not delivering it so they can say to Hamas that they really are not fully supporting Abbas and the Fatah. Egypt is certainly guilty of this, dealing with both Hamas (allowing smuggling of arms to Gaza) and Fatah (supporting Abbas politically) at the same time.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:38 PM
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