M I D - E A S T   R E A L I T I E S  - LIE of the Week
***********************************************************
News, Information, & Analysis that Governments, Interest Groups, and the Corporate Media Do Not Want You To Know!
***********************************************************
PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR AHEAD? HAMAS TO BE DESTROYED.
*****************************************
To receive MER weekly send reply message with words "SEND MER" MER@MiddleEast.Org
-------------------------------
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 indigenuous 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 accussed 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 WWAITS
(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 emphasised 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
--------------------------------------5/29/97-----------------------
MER may be freely resent via email as long as it is sent complete without any editing or changes of any kind. Indeed further email distribution is encouraged and appreciated. For any Web or print publication written permission is required -- please contact MER@MiddleEast.Org, phone 202 362-5266 (Ext 638) or fax 202 362-6965.

Make sure you are receiving MER regularly. To be added to the MER list simply message to LISTSERVE@MiddleEast.Org with only the words SUBSCRIBE MER-L in the subject and message areas. ********************************************

For previous MER information, commentary, editorials: http://WWW.MiddleEast.Org

------------------------------------------------------------------
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
***************************************************