(IsraelNN.com) Testimony from within Gaza belies the Hamas "reign of peace" claimed by a Hamas official in a New York Times op-ed. The PLO, convening in Ramallah, has announced its support of the Fatah-led government of PA chairman and Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas. It also supports Abbas' proposal to establish an emergency government without Hamas. The Fatah chief has installed Salam Fayad as Prime Minister, and has halted the payment of salaries to public employees in Gaza. Other decisions by the PLO governing board: a call for Abbas (Abu Mazen) to prepare for new elections for both Chairman and the Parliament, and support for the Fatah decision to disarm all armed groups in the PA, including Hamas and Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigades. Hamas, on the other hand, does not recognize Abu Mazen's dismissal of Hamas leader Ismail Haniye as Prime Minister of the PA. It is trying to stabilize its rule in Gaza. The division of the Palestinian Authority into two entities - Gaza and Judea/Samaria - thus becomes more of a fact, with two different governments shaping up. Gaza is now widely and informally known as Hamastan, and Judea/Samaria as Fatahland.
Hamas has threatened to publicize Fatah documents it uncovered during its sudden takeover ten days ago. The documents purportedly show that officials in the Abu Mazen administration cooperated with Israel in anti-terrorist and anti-Hamas actions.
Op-ed Paints Rosy - but Disputed - Picture
Though an op-ed article in The New York Times on Thursday, by Haniye's advisor Ahmed Yousef, maintains that Hamas is peace-loving and responsible, many do not agree. Yousef writes, "From the day Hamas won the general elections in 2006, it offered Fatah the chance of joining forces and forming a unity government. It tried to engage the international community to explain its platform for peace. It has consistently offered a 10-year cease-fire with the Israelis to try to create an atmosphere of calm in which we resolve our differences... For 18 months we have tried to find ways to coexist with Fatah, entering into a unity government, even conceding key positions in the cabinet to their and international demands, negotiating up until the last moment to try to provide security for all of our people on the streets of Gaza... "Eventually we were forced into trying to take control of a very dangerous situation in order to provide political stability and establish law and order. The streets of Gaza are now calm for the first time in a very long time. We have begun disarming some of the drug dealers and the armed gangs, and we hope to restore a sense of security and safety to the citizens of Gaza. We want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again, and provide long-term economic gains for our people... Our sole focus is Palestinian rights and good governance. We now hope to create a climate of peace and tranquility within our community that will pave the way for an end to internal strife... We reject attempts to divide Palestine into two parts and to pass Hamas off as an extreme and dangerous force. We continue to believe that there is still a chance to establish a long-term truce. But this will not happen unless the international community fully engages with Hamas. .."
Others tell a very different story. The NFC news site quotes residents of Gaza who speak of a "regime of fear." Life has become impossible under the Hamas militias, they said. The site reports that hundreds of residents were forcibly removed from their homes and mosques on Wednesday night in order to take part in protest rallies against Abu Mazen. "We couldn't refuse," residents said, "because the Hamas forces would not have hesitated to murder us with the claim that we belonged to the Fatah revolutionaries."
In addition to their fear of expressing anti-Hamas opinions, the residents also are concerned that food and medicine supplies will run out within a number of days. Even fishermen are not allowed to fish past a certain distance from the shore.
Many can't wait to leave for Egypt. One man said, "We look forward to stability not in hope that Haniye's government will succeed, but just so that the crossings will open and we can get out of here... Hamas will try to survive despite international isolation, and we will become poverty cases in the name of the political struggle here."
Even Arab Knesset Member Muhammed Barakeh, speaking at the PLO meeting today, implied that Hamas was not working for the good of the Palestinian Authority people. He said that the main goal now is to "protect our nation fro m regional and international agendas that are disconnected from our national issues." Barakeh implied that Hamas was not working for a Palestinian state. Other Arab MKs said earlier this week and last that the Hamas violence during its takeover of Gaza had "put Palestinian nationalism tens of years behind," and called it "crimes against the Palestinian nation."