A year ago this week, Hamas violently wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas.
The fighting between the two Palestinian factions was vicious, furious and fast. In the end, the better-trained and probably more highly motivated Hamas forces of Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Meshal carried the blood-soaked day.
Abbas called the Hamas takeover a “bloody coup.” He referred to his Hamas brethren in highly unflattering terms. The inter-factional, intra-Palestinian hatred remains to this day. Since the coup last June, human rights groups report that some 118 Palestinians have been killed in inter-factional fighting in Gaza. Hundreds of Fatah members rot in Gaza jails, and arrests of Fatah supporters are carried out almost every day.
The public call last week by Abbas to pursue a dialogue of reconciliation with Hamas leaders fooled no one. He is vying for pre-eminence in the Palestinian “street.” The appearance of bravely wanting to coexist with Hamas, affirming Palestinian solidarity despite the opposition of the United States and especially of Israel, is the emotional asphalt that paves that predictably unpredictable street with adulation and praise.
But Abbas also knew that apart from disappointing the Americans and the Israelis, which is a constant byproduct of his faux-posturing, he was risking very little with his gesture of equanimity to his Hamas enemies. For the main result of Hamas rule in Gaza these past 12 months has been the overwhelming poverty of the people who live there. Abbas’ fellow Palestinians are drearily fatigued by it. About 50 per cent of Gazans have no work. Two-thirds live below the poverty line and need international aid to survive. Close to 90 per cent of factories are closed. There is hardly any new construction. And food staples are very expensive.
To be sure, the economic condition in Gaza is also a result of the economic blockade imposed by Israel and the financial blockade imposed by western countries. But that, too, is the plain and direct result of Hamas leaders choosing always and only the way of violence and hatred. They refuse to give up the goal of destroying Israel. They refuse to abjure violence. They refuse to honour former agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Under the circumstances, Israel’s blockade is reasonable and necessary. Any other country facing the same situation would do no less – and very likely a great deal more.
Hamas’ rule in Gaza has been decidedly bad for Israel. Rockets fall on Israelis who live near Gaza virtually every day. Gilad Schalit has been a captive for nearly two years.
But the real harm of Hamas’ rule has fallen upon the Palestinians. Until and unless Hamas decides that Jews, too, have a right to live sovereign in the Middle East, the Palestinian people will be doomed to their wearying poverty and to more anniversaries of unfulfilled national aspirations.
