While You Were Watching Fatah
The first Fatah convention in 20 years resulted in a restatement the "right of armed resistance" and "right of return." Jerusalem was labeled holy to Christians and Muslims - only. Committee recommendations rejected negotiations with Israel until after 14 conditions are met, including lifting the blockade of Gaza and releasing all prisoners. Younger, harder-line, members were elected to the Central Committee. Abu Mazen refused to let the assembled look at the organization's finances.
There was a lot of talk about the strategic aims of Fatah and about "occupied territory," but not a word about where a legitimate, sovereign Jewish State of Israel fits in the plan. If anyone wanted to encourage American peacemaking, it wasn't evident.
But at least Fatah was just talking. Hamas in Gaza was knocking off the opposition. Sunday, a spokesman said, "Life has begun returning to normal and all security activities in Rafah have ended successfully."
What security activities?
A Hamas military assault on a mosque in Gaza The killing of 28 members of a rival militia and one Hamas commander The wounding of more than 120 other people - A suicide bomb detonation in the house of the militia commander
The arrest of 90 people said to belong to the rival militia
A previously unknown group, Jund Ansar Allah ("Soldiers of the Companions of God"), was said by Hamas - a reliable source if ever there was one - to be supported by al Qaeda. Hamas announced it would not tolerate a rival and demanded that Sheikh Abdel Latif Mousa surrender to authorities after a sermon in the Ibn Taymiyeh Mosque on Friday. Hamas militiamen surrounded the mosque and were met with mortars and automatic rifle fire. Hamas troops returned fire and the ensuing battle lasted until Saturday. (So much for the sanctity of mosques.) Outside, a suicide bomber exploded in an attempt to kill Hamas troops. Supporters fled to Mousa's house. Pursued by Hamas, they engaged in battle and in the end, committed suicide.
Taher a-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government, said Hamas wouldn't allow lawlessness and anarchy to return to Gaza.
Just another weekend but for two oddities - the Hamas commander killed was Muhammad al-Shamali, thought to be in control of Gilad Shalit. And Mousa was an employee of the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, his salary paid by the Fatah government that lives on donations from the European Union and the United States.
Hamas took pains to announce that Jund Ansar Allah had internationalist goals and was an enemy of the West. In the convoluted logic of Palestinian politics, could that have been Hamas trying to say it is interested in contact with the West - with the United States?
At the end of a confusing week and weekend, it remains clear that neither Hamas nor Fatah is prepared to be an acceptable interlocutor for the United States or for Israel.
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