M I D - E A S T
R E A L I T I E S - WWW.MiddleEast.Org
***************************************************************
"News, Analysis & Commentary
They Don't Want You to Know" ***************************************************************
THE VIOLENCE WAS INEVITABLE...AND
NOW, LIQUIDATE HAMAS?
***************************************************************
To get MER regularly email to: INFOMER@MiddleEast.Org
.
THE VIOLENCE WAS INEVITABLE
- AND NOW?
MER - Washington - 31 July:
The war to liquidate Hamas will now be stepped
up considerably.
The Israelis have been preparing for this opportunity
which they knew would come sooner or later; they want to use the current
climate to ruthlessly stamp out as many of the Palestinian underground
cells as possible.
Whether the "peace process" with Arafat
continues or not, destroying all forms of Palestinian opposition to the
real policy of putting Palestinians on isolated and surrounded reservations
is at the heart of Israeli policy.
The "Palestinian Authority" of Yasser
Arafat will have little choice but to cooperate or it to will be left out
to dry, funding and support squeezed as much as need be to get what the
Israelis want. There is no need for Arafat's PA unless it will keep the
Palestinians in check and continue signing "agreements" so one-sided
and surrenderish that they are worth literally millions to the Israelis.
Furthermore the American- sponsored Arab "client-regimes"
in Amman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are also desperate to bring radical Palestinians
under their control and push forward the "peace process" at nearly
any cost, lest their own connections with the Americans and the Israelis
become even more suspect.
NETANYAHU IN PUBLIC
Netanyahu will use CNN's "Larry King Live"
tonight -- one of the most pro-Israeli TV personalities and networks --
to further twist public opinion to support these policies. "You
have encouraged the violence and incitement, you have not arrested Hamas
and Islamic Jihad activists, and you have not fought the terrorist infrastructure,"
Netanyahu lectured Arafat yesterday. "Worse than this, senior elements
in the Palestinian police have been involved in terrorist acts!"
Netanyahu added. "I demand that you take immediate action against
the terror organizations. I am not prepared to be satisfied with expressions
of regret. You have to completely change what you are saying and doing.
You must change your policy 180 degrees."
DAVID BAR-ILAN IN PUBLIC:
Netanyahu's senior aide, David Bar-Illan, went
even further yesterday accusing Arafat of "not even trying" to
stop terrorism. "The number of casualties since the beginning of
the peace process is higher than at any other period in the history of
our state. There has never been such a wave of murders."
CLINTON IN PUBLIC:
And Bill Clinton, beyond doubt the most Israeli-controlled
American President ever, will of course continue to fully cooperate. "Today's
bombing by terrorists in Jerusalem is a barbarous act. There is no excuse
and there must be no tolerance for this kind of inhumanity... The only
answer can and must be concrete steps by the Palestinian Authority to increase
security operations and the strengthening of security cooperation between
Palestinians and Israelis," Clinton insisted yesterday. Israeli
planning to destroy Hamas, including stimulating a Palestinian civil war
that could deeply savage Palestinian nationalism for further decades, is
not new. Its root are decades deep in fact; but the "peace process"
and Arafat's co-optation of the 90s has given the Israelis a major new
opportunity. The following is from MER a few months ago in late May and
should be reconsidered now:
*******************************************************
PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR
AHEAD? HAMAS TO BE DESTROYED. *******************************************************
PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR
AHEAD?
MER - 5/29/97 - Washington:
In a sense, it already has. A low-grade civil
war has been going on for some years between the Western-oriented PLO --
highly corrupted and infiltrated -- and the grass-roots Hamas -- far more
indigenous but very much outgunned and outmoneyed.
But now a shooting and assassinating war may
be lurking. The Israelis and the Americans want Hamas destroyed -- regardless
of cost. The only other option might be to try to tame and coopt it, which
might explain letting Hamas's Political Head, Dr. Mousa Abu Marzook, flee
to Amman rather than imprisoned in Israel.
As for Arafat and the "authority",
they fear Hamas. And they fear it all the more in the future, knowing that
they will be increasingly and rightly accused of collaboration, corruption,
and ineptitude; and knowing that any "final settlement" deal
will certainly not be a good one for the Palestinians after what they have
already done.
The alignment of Arafat's PA with the Israeli
Army and the American CIA, plus more help from the Europeansm, is likely
to prove overwhelming in the short term -- Hamas will be significantly
crippled if not destroyed, its remains pushed deeply underground. The next
time there is a "terrorist incident", whether actual or created
by either the Israelis or the PA, this more violent battle is likely to
erupt.
True, Arafat, and others close to him, could
well not survive as well. But for the Israelis (and the Americans behind
them of course) they win either way.
If Arafat succeeds and a "final agreement"
is reached -- even if they call the separated and surrounded "autonomous"
Bantustans a State -- Israeli hegemony, control, and dominance is assured.
Alternatively, if Arafat and the PA collapse,
they tell the world how much they tried and they then keep the Palestinians
imprisoned and impoverished for the next few decades as creeping Israeli
settler domination creates more "facts on the ground" creating
its own "final settlement". Recently a major warning was issued
by Hamas about what the civil war that is being prepared, by both sides
now.
This very interesting information comes from
Palestine Report, one of the few remaining publications among the Palestinians
desperately trying to retain its independence and integrity.
HAMAS SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PLOT BY SECURITY
FORCES
PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR AWAITS
(Palestine Report, 5/23/97)* Gaza City -- The
Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, issued a statement in Beirut on May
19 signed by their Beirut representative, Mustafa al-Lidawi, accusing one
of the Palestinian Authority security organs of preparing a plan to destroy
Hamas in order to convince the Israeli government to go ahead with the
implementation of the Oslo agreement. Following are excerpts from the statement:
"Classified information acquired by our movement indicates that there
is a scheme by certain security apparatuses inside the Palestinian Authority,
to be implemented in two phases, in order to strike at the organizational
infrastructure of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. "The conspiratorial scheme includes training secret
units within the framework of one of the [Palestinian ]Authority's security
apparatuses to carry out selected, organized raids against Israeli targets
both inside and outside the Palestinian self-rule territories.
[These raids] will then be attributed to Hamas
movement and then the Authority apparatuses will be able to carry out arrest
campaigns within the leadership and cadres of the movement." This
will conclude the first phase of the scheme. "The second phase, which
is the most dangerous, calls for the assassination of Hamas movement leaders,
and then [seemingly] in response, assassinations of Palestinian Authority
personalities, carried out by this same secret group....These actions will
open the door for...the termination of the movement [Hamas] and its leadership
inside Palestine... "By implementing these schemes, these groups strive
to find a way for the Authority to get out of its crisis by blaming other
parties for the failure of its political program. Those involved hope that
this scheme will contribute to the Authority's campaign against Hamas in
order to convince the Zionist prime minister and his government that the
Authority is sincere in implementing its promises and the protection of
the Zionists' security...." Hamas leader 'Abdel 'Aziz Rantisi, spokesperson
for the Marj al-Zuhour Hamas expellees who was released from an Israeli
prison last month after more than three years' incarceration, said in a
speech in Gaza on May 20 that: "I have been informed that there are
people who plan to kill Palestinians from the Authority and place the blame
on Hamas, which will bring retaliation [by the PA] against Hamas."
Rantisi declared that, if the plan detailed in
the Hamas statement were carried out, "a civil war [would follow].
Thus, I am telling you and speaking for the record: if one day you were
told that Hamas had raised a fist, a stick or a rifle against our brothers
in the Authority, you can say with full confidence that this is a lie.
We will not allow a conspiracy against the Palestinian people."
Rantisi emphasized the importance of what he
described as a "comprehensive, constructive and fruitful national
dialogue with the Palestinian Authority. But he stressed that, "We
do not support a dialogue that [aims to] disintegrate Hamas. We are with
the dialogue which unites us with our brothers in the Palestinian Authority
to confront the brutal enemy until we succeed in liberating our homeland."
AAH
* PALESTINE REPORT is a weekly news digest
published by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre (JMCC).
.
M I D - E A S T R E
A L I T I E S
(202) 362-5266, Ext 638 Fax:
(202) 362-6965 MER@MiddleEast.Org
***************************************************************
For information about the weekly
TV program, MID-EAST REALITIES, send email
to
INFOMER@MiddleEast.Org.
***************************************************************
For previous MER information, commentary,
editorials & Readers Comments: http://WWW.MiddleEast.Org