Last update - 00:00 15/06/2007
Calling the shots
By Avi Issacharoff
"Panic is ruling our lives," said S. of the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood two days ago, when Hamas had almost completed its takeover of the Gaza Strip. "We're sitting here on the floor, the entire family. We can't approach the windows or stand up. So we're sitting. Every moment a missile explodes, but the greatest fear is for the future. Nobody knows how things will look a few hours from now, when Hamas captures Gaza."
The fears of S., like many Gaza residents, are not unfounded. A look at Hamas' behavior in the Strip in recent days has revealed zero tolerance toward the "other." Anything identified with Fatah was attacked, even women and children related to activists. "I'm not sure what they'll do with the secular, and what they'll to with me, since my brother is in the security services," S. added.
Two days ago, Hamas activists fired at a procession of unarmed citizens and killed two of them. On Tuesday they killed three women and a child. On Monday they threw a Fatah activist from the 18th floor of a high-rise building. Although these actions sowed panic among Fatah activists, they also increased residents' hostility toward Hamas.
Now that the civil war has been decided - within less than 72 hours, with almost no real battle on Fatah's part - many of Gaza's residents, including S., want to leave: "I don't know where to. Maybe even to Israel if they would only let me. Maybe to Ramallah if possible. It's impossible to know what the Hamas crazies will do. They behave like animals, and at some point they'll get to me, too."
Not only do Gaza residents face an unclear future. Israel also is being forced to confront some very difficult questions, and the answer needs to be more creative than deploying international forces on the Egypt-Gaza border. That initiative, which was born in the Foreign Ministry, was appropriate in the days when Fatah controlled the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, when there still was someone to talk to. Ehud Olmert's announcement of support for the idea on Tuesday proves the prime minister has not internalized the critical developments in the Strip.
With Hamas in control, with whom exactly will the international deployment be coordinated? Who in Hamas will agree to a foreign presence on the border? Some will perhaps claim that with Hamas - mainly its moderate faction - Israel actually will be able to reach agreements, and as opposed to Fatah, Hamas will even honor them. But the "moderate faction" of Hamas has become a rare species in the Gaza civil war. The extremist wing, which has been dictating the nature of recent Hamas activity in the Strip, is not willing to speak to Israel. As far as it is concerned, efforts to destroy Israel should continue.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's idea of two states based on the pre-1967 borders is not acceptable to this group. And thus, on "the day after," Israel will have to decide what to do with a Hamas that is now more extreme, and with a PA that no longer controls Gaza.