[WCUSP] Hamas Optimism vs. Fatah Despair

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

from the August 14, 2007 edition -  
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0814/p06s02-wome.html
Hamas optimism vs. Fatah despair
In Hamas-controlled Gaza, Palestinian militants  express a new enthusiasm for 
the coastal strip, while their Fatah counterparts  face growing 
disillusionment. 
By _Dan  Murphy_ 
(http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=B2B0B0B4B0B3B2B2B0B9B3B3B2B5&url=/2007/0814/p06s02-wome.html)  | Staff writer of The 
Christian Science  Monitor
 

Gaza City, Gaza; and Ramallah, West Bank
 
Even in the face of possible economic collapse, Hamas leaders want to figure  
out a better way to collect garbage in Gaza. The Islamist movement, which now 
 controls the coastal strip, is working out ways to create new jobs and 
reduce  petty crime.  
A new enthusiasm has swept through this territory in the aftermath of the  
violent split in June between the two Palestinian factions. Among many young  
Gazans there is excitement for a Palestinian enclave that fully embraces the  
principles of their Islamic Resistance Movement without the interference of  
Fatah rivals.  
"We've taken control, we've gotten rid of people who were collaborating with  
Israel, and we've restored order," says Khalil al-Haja, a mid-ranking member 
of  Hamas Qassem Brigade militia. "Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud 
Abbas]  will eventually have to realize that we're hear to stay. In six months, 
we'll be  reunited."  
While that vision may indeed be only a Hamas dream, the good spirits among  
Hamas officials in Gaza are in stark contrast to the low morale of their Fatah  
counterparts.  
In talking to Fatah members in the West Bank, a picture of despair,  
disorganization, and exhaustion emerges, not only due to what they feel was a  
humiliating defeat at the hands of their rivals but because Fatah as a movement  
appears to be losing touch with its own ideological moorings.  
The differences call into question the current US strategy for dealing with  
the Palestinians: give Mr. Abbas legitimacy, prod the Israelis to improve 
daily  life in the West Bank, and isolate Hamas in an economically desperate Gaza. 
 
Though Gaza's economy is weakening, there is every sign that Hamas is  
inexorably bolstering its position. 
"Audiences in the US have a strong feeling of black and white and they're  
betting on which side will win based on whether it agrees with them," says Mouin 
 Rabbani, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. "But there's an issue 
 that is overlooked: The virtual disintegration of Fatah."  
Neither side has shown themselves to be paragons of democracy. In the West  
Bank, hundreds Hamas activists have been jailed for their political beliefs  
since June, gunmen out of uniform are frequently seen on city streets, and the  
local security forces are seen by many average citizens as unruly thugs.  
In Gaza, while unarmed volunteers untangle crippling traffic, there have been 
 recent indications that the Hamas-controlled security forces are growing 
more  thuggish. In the past week, they have arrested at least 11 Fatah activists 
and,  on Monday, forcibly tried to disperse a pro-Fatah protest.  
Hamas's Executive Force, an offshoot of its Qassem Brigade militia that now  
acts as the strip's de facto police, has stepped up its own brand of political 
 repression. On Monday, the group said all political demonstrations in Gaza 
would  require licenses before being allowed to go ahead, and the group also 
recently  closed a Fatah-controlled radio station.  
Over the weekend, a fight broke out between Executive Force members and  
guests at a Fatah wedding party. Hamas said it took action because gunshots were  
fired at the wedding (Hamas has tried to ban this tradition since falling  
bullets frequently kill bystanders); Fatah supporters said they had merely been  
singing pro-Fatah songs.  
Ahmed Yousef, a senior adviser to Hamas leader and former Palestinian Prime  
Minister Ismail Haniyeh who lived for decades in the US, argues that the 
"coup"  in Gaza, as Fatah calls it, was in fact a preemptive strike against a 
takeover  plan by Fatah members loyal to Mohammed Dahlan, the former Palestinian 
security  chief and notorious Gaza strongman.  
"Our No. 1 priority was, and is, strengthening law and order, and the  
[Mohammed] Dahlan group know that when that happens their corruption,  conspiracies, 
and abuse of power would be revealed."  
Mr. Yousef says Hamas uncovered documents that prove rampant theft by Mr.  
Dahlan and other Fatah leaders from the movement's sacked offices in Gaza,  
though he declined to provide them. "We have all the facts for now, and the  
people expect us to reveal something, but sometimes the wiser course is to make  
the argument in private."  
Indeed, corruption is the accusation you hear leveled at Fatah again and  
again from talking with Palestinians in the West Bank.  
Despite anger among many Palestinians at Hamas for the Gaza takeover, in  
which some Fatah activists were executed, the Islamist movement is still seen  
overwhelmingly as the more "clean" faction, the reason that so many Palestinians 
 voted for Hamas in the January 2006 elections.  
"We lost our way years ago," says Azzam al-Ahmad, a former deputy prime  
minister and Fatah member in the Palestinian parliament. "Too much corruption  was 
tolerated in our ranks, and now we have to find a way to rebuild."  
Qadura Fares, a member of Fatah's young guard, is more blunt. "Fatah needs  
radical surgery, but the patient is very frail. If you meet with 200 Fatah  
representatives, they'll all tell you the same thing. Corruption is our big  
problem. But, of course, some of those 200 are among the corrupt. Are they going  
to give up their positions? It doesn't look like it."  
And while one adviser to the Bush administration says that when Fatah leaders 
 come to Washington they invariably talk about what the US should do to 
weaken  Hamas, rather than present new initiatives to further the interests of the  
Palestinian people, Hamas's leaders say they are mostly focused on their  
responsibilities at home.  
Yousef says Hamas has started providing $100 a month to 20,000 of Gaza's  
poorest from its own coffers (although he still says Hamas is receiving outside  
financial support) and that the movement has made great strides in getting  
gunmen off the streets.  
Perhaps Hamas's greatest success so far has been in disbanding criminal  
clans, most visibly the Dugmush clan, which claimed responsibility for kidnapped  
and holding BBC reporter Alan Johnston for more than three months earlier this 
 year. Today, many shopkeepers say they no longer have to pay the protection  
money once demanded by criminal clans.  
"We've made the consequences very clear to the clans if they don't keep their 
 weapons at home," says Islam Shawan, the spokesman for the Executive Force. 
"We  still have four of the men involved with Johnston's kidnapping in custody 
and  will arrest more if we have to."  
As for any movement toward new negotiations between the two rival Palestinian 
 factions on a possible new unity government, "We made some mistakes, we know 
 that, and we're ready and eager to talk," says Hamas's Yousef.  
Mr. Ahmad of Fatah holds a very different position: "Until all the results of 
 the coup are overturned, no discussions will be possible." 









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