Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations
by Saud Abu Ramadan
GAZA, Aug. 3 (Chinese media) -- Smart leaders of the Islamic Hamas movement grasped a gold opportunity produced by a deadly Gaza bomb attack to wield a dominant influence over the Gaza Strip, analysts said.
The arrests carried out by Hamas security forces and its armed wing obviously are aimed at putting an end to any military presence of Fatah and getting rid of any future armed threats to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, they said.
Hamas leaders began to crack down on its rival Fatah movement immediately after the attack on a Hamas militants' car near Gaza city beach on July 25 which killed five Hamas militants and a little girl.
The Saturday assault of Hamas security forces and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades on the pro-Fatah Helles clan in Sheja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City was apparently part of a wide plan to end any presence of Fatah in the enclave.
"Regardless of who is behind Gaza bomb attack on Friday July 25,Hamas picked up the opportunity to accuse Fatah movement before carrying out any investigation to crack down on militants, who are considered as a threat to its rule in Gaza," said Ra'ed Abu Eyada,a Palestinian political analyst.
A few hours after the bomb attack, Hamas started to implement aplan "which seems to be prepared in advance" to weaken its rival Fatah movement and to "apparently exert a pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept unconditioned resumption of dialogue," he added.
The new internal rift, consequently, poses a grave threat to the dialogue which was initiated by Abbas in June to reconcile feuding Palestinian factions including Hamas and scheduled to be held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in August.
AMBITIOUS STRATEGY
The latest heavy fighting between Hamas and Fatah movements is anything but new. Hamas movement founded in 1987 has harvested a large popular support at the expense of Fatah and other political groups.
Year after year, radical Hamas depends on suicide bombing against Israel to earn popularity among Palestinians suffering from decades-old insecurity, which is deemed as a cut-throat competition with Fatah, a secular and dominant Palestinian force.
After Israel and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the founder of Fatah, signed Oslo peace accords in 1993, Hamas capitalized on suicide bombings to undermine the peace talks with Israelis, which induced clampdown on its own forces by Fatah.
After Arafat passed away in 2004, Hamas became a large popular power on the Palestinian political map.
"Hamas movement, which is part of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood movement, has its own strategy a long time ago, and itstarted to implement it at the beginning of the Intifada which erupted in September 2000," said Hani Habib, a Palestinian academic and political analyst.
He said the strategy is based on scraping up the largest popularity mainly by revealing the failure of ruling authorities "and then running in the elections" to replace the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
In 2005, Hamas took a strategic decision to run in the municipal and legislative elections in the Palestinian territories. Hamas defeated Fatah in most of the municipal councils in Gaza andthe West Bank and also scored a surprising victory in the legislative elections in January 2006.
"Winning in the municipal and legislative elections was expected for Hamas. There were many reasons that helped the movement to achieve a great victory, such as revealing the corruption of the Palestinian National Authority and leading the armed resistance against Israel," said Habib.
After Hamas movement won the elections, it started to implement the second phase of its strategy, namely to build up its rule with a police force capable to defend it.
In 2006, Hamas formed a unity government and a police force called the "executive force" which was largely rejected by rival Fatah movement.
Hamas consolidated its power step by step until it defeated Fatah-dominated security forces loyal to Abbas and took control ofthe whole Gaza Strip in June last year.
Over a year into Hamas' rule in Gaza, Hamas took tough actions to clip the wing of Fatah in the enclave and political cleavages that were under control through resistance against the Jewish state in the past 20 years finally filled out irreconcilable.
Fatah leader Ahmed Abdel Rahman accused Hamas movement of planning to establish an Islamic regime in the Palestinian territories and to take control of the West Bank currently in the reign of Fatah.
"The attack on Helles clan on Saturday and the actions that Hamas carried out against Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip show that it wants to establish an Islamic Emirate in Gaza," said Abdel Rahman.
He added "Hamas actions show that it doesn't want any dialogue with Fatah movement."
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