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News :: Israel / Palestine |
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Hamas on the defensive over suicide bombings |
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by haaretz via gehrig
(No verified email address) |
01 Sep 2004
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"The militant groups are keen to prove that their attacks drove Israel out of the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank. But they are also aware that Palestinian terror attacks are the most potentially powerful weapon that Israelis opposed to the pull-out could use to foil the plan. " |
Background / Has the world given up on Palestine?
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
Four years and 4,000 deaths into the uprising, has the world given up on the cause of the Palestinians?
As the real-time history of the Holy Land repeats itself in a tail-chasing parade of tragedy and farce, there are signs that even Palestinians have to a degree wearied of the demands, the costs, and the conduct of their own struggle.
Last month, thousands of Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons and detention camps declared a hunger strike in protest over such restrictions as body searches and bans on telephone use and physical contact with family members.
But the protest has flagged, not least because of the tepid response of the Muslim world and the lack of involvement by Palestinians themselves.
To the chagrin of Islamic groups and politicians championing the prisoners' cause, the fervor of many in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been directed elsewhere. It has focused on crooner Ammar Hassan, 27, of the village of Salfit, the Palestinian contestant in the Lebanese al-Mustaqbal television's "Superstar 2" vocalist competition.
Moreover, even the song contest has been cited by Palestinians as evidence of the mounting apathy of those they had counted on most.
When text-message and internet votes from throughout the Arab world were tabulated in the finals of the contest, Palestinians were stunned and dismayed to learn that Hassan had been handily defeated by the Libyan contestant.
The results stirred open resentment in Salfit, where 5,000 Palestinians had gathered to watch the finals. "They sold Jerusalem," a vexed Mahmoud Yassin, 20, said of Arabs who had cast votes elsewhere. "It's no surprise they now sold out Ammar."
Palestinians, their economy ruined by lack of access to work in Israel, as well as Israel Defense Forces attacks and other factors, have also watched as their protests, international legal campaigns, and United Nations moves against the West Bank fence have fallen on less than receptive ears.
The nature of the conflict, its glacial immutability, dramatic developments the lack of clear delineation into victims and villains, the expansion of Islamist terrorism into the hearts of Manhattan and Moscow, all of these may have played a part in the perceived drop in resonance of the Palestinian cause.
At the same time, promises by Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of breathtaking escalation in bombings and other mass suicide attacks against Israelis have left the armed militant organizations open to a new brand of discreet criticism.
On Tuesday, five months of relative calm amid hundreds of failed attempts at avenging the Israeli assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi came to an abrupt end in the sleepy Negev town of Be'er Sheva, where suicide bombs hit two buses within seconds of each other.
Hamas sent hundreds of its masked loyalists into the streets of Gaza to hail the attacks, which left 16 people dead and more than 90 wounded.
Rather than confirming the continued potency of Hamas, however, the bombings seemed to point to the opposite.
"Hamas spokesmen yesterday acknowledged in a fairly obvious fashion the military weakness of their movement," remarks Haaretz Arab Affairs Editor Danny Rubinstein.
"They explained that the bombings in Be'er Sheva came to avenge the murder of their leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, thereby disclosing the fact that during the months that elapsed since their liquidation, Hamas' military wing, Iz Al-Din al-Kassam, failed to respond.
"Why did you wait so long?" Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu-Zuhry, was asked by a Al-Jazeera television network correspondent. His reply: "We had to prepare for this operation meticulously, so we waited."
It little helped the Hamas cause when the movement released a videotape made prior to the attacks, which seemed to subtly underscore the long delay in avenging the assassinations. In the tape, one of the Be'er Sheva bombers recites a dedication of the attack to the Palestinian prisoners, then falters and, which a sheepish smile, appears to forget what he was to say next, that the attack was also to avenge the killings of Sheikh Yassin and Rantisi.
Palestinians also watched as normally sympathetic international news outlets explained that the attack was carried out in an area of Israel unprotected by the West Bank fence, underscoring Israeli arguments that the barrier was crucial to the security of the citizens of the Jewish state.
The Palestinian concern comes at a time when the living symbol of Palestine, Yasser Arafat, has been largely abandoned by allies in Europe, openly scorned by Washington, and has become the target of unprecedented criticism by his constituents.
In recent months, there have also been recent indications that the Hamas leadership has suffered a drop in its status among Palestinians since the assassinations. The organization is also believed to be suffering a shortage of weaponry, as well as an internal debate over how to respond to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement proposal.
The militant groups are keen to prove that their attacks drove Israel out of the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank. But they are also aware that Palestinian terror attacks are the most potentially powerful weapon that Israelis opposed to the pull-out could use to foil the plan.
There was also something new and, for militants, disturbing in the perceived response to suicide bombings this week.
"All Hamas activists who gave interviews yesterday to Arab media outlets declared that this attack was vengeance for the assassination of their leaders," Rubinstein writes in Wednesday's paper. "But their words betrayed signs of defensiveness over criticism directed at them for hurting civilians."
©2004, Haaretz
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