In Thee We Trust
The rank and file of Fatah, the non-officer rank, the well armed rabble loyal to Mahmoud Abbas the inherited head of the Palestinian Authority, remained loyal to their president, to their ideology, their movement for the 'liberation of Palestine', and were prepared to fight to the death. "We will not surrender. They will execute us."'They' being the Hamas rank and file, even more determinedly blood-thirsty than Fatah, since they have the vision of Islamist-inspired jihad for motivation. And the promise inherent in the first sentence is the resignation of Fatah first-line soldiery to fight to the death. Both Fatah and Hamas prepared to deal death toward one another, but to embrace their personal salvation from this earthly coil as gifts to Allah, whose demand it is to his flock that they surrender all to His greater purpose.
And, needless to say, the greater purpose that has been divined by the fanatic interpreters of His intent is to expunge the State of Israel from the map of the Middle East. Pity that tribal enmity just happened to get in the way and complicate an already complicated situation.
The last stand in Gaza, where courageously determined Fatah militants held their own against the slavering attack by Hamas militants - and succeeded in fighting them back, routing them, just kind of evaporated, never happened, a hopeful mirage that refused to materialize.
The outside world had read something to the effect that high-level Fatah military members were assisted in their flight from the anticipated carnage. That the brave Fatah elite abandoned their militias, boarding Israeli gunboats off the coast of Gaza. Alternately that they commandeered fishing boats, or just silently and swiftly slicked their way down the beach. On the run. What an inspirational move.
The foot soldiers, looking about, finding no authority figures, no support, no orders, no motivation. They laid down their arms and fled for their lives. Panic ensued. If all was lost, as surely it must be, since their leaders decamped, what need was there for them to stand at the ready and defend that which was theirs? From their boastful promises to repel Hamas with the impressive quantity and quality of their fighters, to the humiliation of abandonment.
Rumours later erupted, silently, blisteringly, accusingly. Some began to speak out: "We felt like there was a conspiracy to hand over Gaza to Hamas." A deliberate ploy on the part of Mr. Abbas to permit the Gaza Strip to fall into the hands of Hamas? So one terror group of lesser dread than its partner terror group could accuse the other of murderous treachery?
A handle with which to open the gate of speedy departure and severance of co-operation? A quasi-diplomatic cessation of partnership, where the militia-inspired violence of one maiming and murdering the other brought no vestige of success?
But there are conflicting views, those of individuals who eschew conspiracy theories of that stripe, who claim that they had warned the Fatah ruling elite that Hamas was preparing to execute a coup, and their warning had been spurned by a Fatah which chose to have faith in Hamas's 'good intentions'.
So the presidential compound fell and a victorious Hamas swarmed it, looted it, took valuable incriminating documents against Fatah, and burned the hated president's desk, since they had been unsuccessful in blasting him into eternity.
Did he or didn't he? Betray his own, that is. "There was a political game and we paid the price of it. We were betrayed by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority", claim some who insist that the Fatah forces, had they been better armed, would indeed have fought to the death. But, they claim, the weapons they needed had been deliberately withheld.
Bitter thoughts for loyal Fatah members, listening in the distance to the celebratory Hamas gunfire as the sounds of battle ceased.
And now that Ismail Haniyeh has had second thoughts and has appealed for a resumption of the dysfunctional unity government, it has been yet again rejected by his Fatah counterpart which claims there can be no dialogue with an entity that intrigued to foment a severance of unity, and which succeeded in brutalizing the Fatah militia.
And Mr. Abbas is setting up a commission of enquiry into the defeat of his security forces, even as he has condemned and let go several of his commanders for dereliction of duty.
The new emergency government is considering calling new elections. And democratically changing the rules to ensure that Hamas is excluded from standing for office in the PA. Since their popularity among the Palestinian electorate still poses a problem with the still-unpopular Fatah, their putative presence as a competitor yet again for full representation in the PA poses a true conundrum for Fatah.
Hamas, understandably, is not appreciative at all of this move, condemning its potential as a gross violation of the democratic principle, insisting that the PLO central council has no legitimacy.
As for Israel, and her relations with her near neighbours, it's business as usual. Dealing with the mildly terrorist Fatah factions, and with the seriously Islamist Hamas factions.
Salah Mahmoud Suliman El-Arouri was arrested north of Ramallah; an IDF statement explaining that he is considered to be the founder of Hamas's Izz a-Din al-Kassam Brigades; one of Hamas's senior commanders in Judea and Samaria.
To balance things out, two Fatah terror commanders and a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist were arrested attempting to flee a building in which they had barricaded themselves in the Shechem region.
One of the Tanzim terrorists had received explosives training from Hezbollah and was producing bomb-belts in Shechem. Of the others, one represented membership in Fatah-Tanzim, the other the PFLP.
Labels: Middle East, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, June 24, 2007
<< Home