Friday, February 06, 2009

Israeli assault has only boosted Hamas

February 6 2009


Israeli assault has only boosted Hamas


ONE OF Israel's key objectives of its brutal 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip was to an end to Palestinian rocket attacks across the border at Israeli towns. Another goal was to weaken the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) by inflicting as much damage as possible on the residents of the area and telling them that Hamas was responsible for their suffering because of its hard-line positions.
On both counts, Israel failed despite having killed more than 1300 people and wounded thousands more and left large swathes of the territory in ruins.
The Palestinians have shown that they are still capable of firing rockets targeting Israelis across the border. Such rocket attacks continued even on Friday, one day before Hamas was to respond to proposals for a more stable ceasefire being worked out by Egypt.
On the second count — popular support for Hamas — findings of an opinion poll taken in the Palestinian territories speak for themselves. The survey has shown that Hamas would beat its main Palestinian rival Fatah by a narrow margin if elections were held this week.
Hamas would get 28.6 per cent of the vote compared with 27.9per cent for Fatah faction, according to the survey by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre.
It is a a significant improvement over past polls, which regularly show Fatah ahead despite iHamas’ 76 per cent victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections.
The opinion also showed thart Hamas enjoys considerably stronger support in the Fatah-controlled West Bank than in the Gaza Strip. It also showed Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas member, was the most trusted politician among Palestinians, well ahead of Palestinian President and Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas.
In Gaza, the poll put Hamas at 28 per cent against 33.6 per cent for Fatah. In the West Bank, the poll gave Hamas 29 per cent support against 24.5 per cent for Fatah. The balance was shared by smaller parties.
About 27.7 per cent of those questioned said they trusted Hamas, compared with 26 per cent for Fatah.
The poll makes it clear that instead of weakening Hamas as envisaged, the Israeli military assault has only given a boost to the group. This in turn translates into prompting Hamas into ruling out any compromise in its positions and adding to the already complex political givens on the Palestinian scene.
Being destroyed in the process are prospects for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. The only constant in the equation is the reality that the only way to peace is a two-state solution in Palestine and all sides have to accept it and then work on realising this objective, making compromises that would not have any negative bearing on the just and legitimate rights of everyone concerned.