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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza residents: IDF troops posing as Hamas men
2009-01-11
The testimonies of Gaza Strip residents are revealing new details about the Israel Defense Forces' mode of operation there. In the past two days, Beit Lahia residents forced from their homes said soldiers were posing as members of Hamas' armed wing while advancing on the ground.

The daily pauses in bombing allow Gazans to meet with the displaced - most of whom are housed in an UNRWA school - and hear their stories.

Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who "called out to each other in Arabic, as if they had caught a collaborator, and then, with the element of surprise, went into the houses."

A Gaza radio station warned that troops posing as locals were driving a vehicle normally used by paramedics. Residents said the radio broadcaster listed the vehicle's license plate number and color.

Haaretz has also learned that one of the army's methods for evacuating a home is to fire a missile toward its upper level. That is how B.'s house in Sajaiyeh was destroyed. It was bombed just a few minutes after a missile struck and 40 shell-shocked family members walked out of the house.

The IDF has also forced at least 40,000 people to leave their homes in agricultural and border areas. In Rafah, most of the 20,000 people removed from their homes were lodging with relatives and not in UNRWA facilities.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A hard look at Hamas' capabilities
2008-12-26
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents

Approximately 15,000 armed Palestinians. That's the size of the military force the Israel Defense Forces will face if a major operation in the Gaza Strip goes forward. These militants, from various Hamas factions, will presumably be aided by a few thousand militants from other Palestinian groups.

For two years Hamas, with Iranian assistance, has been working hard on developing its military power, using Hezbollah as a model. Gaza Palestinians are preparing to step up their offensive, with rockets and mortar shells directed at Israel's civilian population in the south, as well as their defense, digging in to retard the IDF's progress and cause heavy Israeli casualties.

Nevertheless, military experts in Israel and the West believe the IDF is capable of retaking Gaza. Israeli reservations about a broad military operation, therefore, are mainly linked to the question of what happens afterward, when the IDF controls a large area that it doesn't want and is in constant friction with terrorists and the civilian population.

The main components of the "Hamas Army":

  • Order of battle: Hamas is transitioning from a terror group to a paramilitary guerrilla organization. The transition includes improvements to the command and control structure, the acquisition of better weapons and the creation of a training program.

    The core of Hamas' "army" is its military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, which the organization sees as its best trained and most disciplined force. It was deployed against Fatah in June 2007 and it will bear the brunt of any engagement with the IDF. Iz al-Din does not generally perform unpopular policing operations (such as the daily suppression of Fatah), instead focusing on preparing for battle with Israel.

    The estimated size of the force is about 1,000, divided into sectors and from brigades down to companies.

  • Training: Palestinian sources say Iz al-Din troops undergo rigorous military training as well as participating in ideological classes held in mosques. Hamas forces do six months of basic training that includes live-fire exercises in which they learn to fire rockets, antitank missiles and mortar shells. They undergo urban warfare training, including exercises simulating an assault on a settlement complete with covering machine-gun fire and antitank fire prior to the assault. Some of the instructors were trained in Iran and Lebanon. In recent years dozens of Gazans have traveled to training camps run by terror organizations and Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

    IDF soldiers who have fought Hamas cells in the Gaza Strip in the past two years report an impressive improvement in their discipline and in their equipment.

  • Other factions: Hamas and smaller organizations, starting with Islamic Jihad, can be expected to cooperate in the event of an engagement with the IDF. Two Popular Resistance Committee factions maintain close contact with Hamas and are likely to subordinate themselves to the organization in a war with Israel.

    Three military groupings identified with global jihad (that is, Al-Qaida and its offshoots), on the other hand, will not accept Hamas authority and will continue to operate independently.

  • Rocket attacks: The rockets and mortar shells were initially developed as a way of bypassing the border fence, which prevented militants from entering Israel to carry out attacks. Shin Bet security service head, Yuval Diskin, told the cabinet this week that Hamas already has rockets with a range of 40 kilometers, that are capable of reaching Ashdod and the outskirts of Be'er Sheva. These are advanced Katyusha that were smuggled into Gaza in pieces through the tunnels and assembled in Gaza. These rockets have not yet been fired at Israel but Hamas and Islamic Jihad already have dozens of 122 mm. Grad rockets with a range of about 20 km. Gaza militants recently began using another Iranian-supplied weapon, 120 mm. mortar shells with an 8-kilometer range.

    Hamas has also made significant gains in manufacturing its own rockets. It has learned to create Ammonium Perchlorate Compound, an advanced rocket propellant that in addition to extending the Qassam's range beyond 20 kilometers also - and more importantly - increases the rocket's shelf life.

    That means the organization can, for the first time, maintain a supply of rockets for months at a time. Analysts believe Hamas currently has over 1,000 rockets. Islamic Jihad maintains its own production and storage facilities, but both rely on Iranian experts for training. Sources in Gaza say that Hamas' "military industry" is working overtime to manufacture rockets, and that the organization can easily fire 80 rockets a day, as it did on Wednesday.

  • Defense: Hamas' defensive strategy includes an extensive underground network of bunkers, tunnels and booby-trapped structures. The Palestinians have proved their explosives capabilities, having destroyed three Israeli tanks and two armored personnel carriers using high-grade explosives.

    Antitank missiles are an important component of Hamas' defensive strategy, which takes on board the lessons learned by Hezbollah in the Second Lebanon War. Hamas has acquired antitank missiles from the Eastern bloc, although the exact models and capabilities are not known.

    Militants can be expected to employ antitank missiles against Israel Air Force helicopters in the event of a confrontation, in the effort to delay and obstruct the entry of the IDF.

  • Offensive plans: Hamas' main weapon is its ability to launch dozens of rockets a day at Israel. In the event of an escalation the organization can be expected to try to prove that it can hit more distant targets, such as Be'er Sheva. Ashkelon is liable to suffer massive rockets attacks. In addition, Hamas is likely to target one kibbutz or moshav near the border in an attempt to cause large numbers of residents to leave and weaken Israeli morale. Israel must also be prepared for a surprise from Hamas, a la Hezbollah, ranging from additional tunnels to facilitate abductions to attacks on boats or aircraft and up to attacks on strategic targets in the south.
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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    IAF kills Hamas gunman in strike on Gaza rocket launchers
    2008-12-25
    An Israel Air Force strike killed a Hamas gunman in the southern Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets and mortars into southern Israel on Wednesday, dampening prospects for a renewed cease fire.

    The six-month cease fire between Israel and Hamas expired last week.

    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government said it had shown restraint until now but vowed to act if the salvoes continued. Aides to Olmert, who met his security cabinet, would not reveal what options were under discussion.

    Before nightfall on Wednesday, militants had fired more than 30 rockets and 30 mortar shells at Israel. While most struck unpopulated areas, two struck homes, causing damage but no injuries.

    An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said Wednesday's air strike hit a group of militants who had just fired mortars at Israel.

    Palestinian medical workers said one Hamas militant was killed in the strike and two other Palestinians were wounded, including a cameraman from Hamas' television station. They added that the Hamas man had belonged to the organization's military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, and that he was killed east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

    The latest violence erupted on Tuesday night when Israeli soldiers killed three Hamas gunmen. The army said the men were preparing to plant explosives along the border.

    Meanwhile Wednesday, Hamas' military wing warned that "thousands of additional Israelis will soon be within the range of our rockets if Israel continues with its aggression."

    "The residents of the south will stay in the bomb shelters for a long time," the Hamas statement continued, adding that "threats of an [Israeli] military offensive don't scare us because we are more prepared than ever.

    The Magen David Adom rescue service declared its highest level of alert by late morning, as some 40 rockets and mortar shells were launched at Israel between 9 A.M. and 1 P.M.

    One of the rockets exploded next to a children's playground in the southern town of Netivot and a mortar shell scored a direct hit on a house in Kibbutz Sha'ar Hanegev, causing extensive damage. A house in the community of Sdot Negev was also severely damaged after it absorbed a direct rocket hit.

    Two more rockets, including a Grad-type missile, exploded in a public area in the northern Negev city of Ashkelon.

    The Home Front Command warned all Gaza-area residents to keep children indoors as the barrage continues and the Sderot municipality told all of its residents not leave their homes until the situation has stabilized.

    The security cabinet held an urgent session on Wednesday morning to discuss how Israel should respond to the fire, calling in Defense Minister Ehud Barak for consultations.

    The defense establishment, meanwhile, ordered border crossings to Gaza to remain closed on Wednesday in response to the attacks.

    On Tuesday, Israel had said it would to open the border to allow food and medicine to enter the Gaza Strip, after days in which the crossings were closed due to the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza.

    The shipment of humanitarian aid was to include five trucks from Egypt, which requested that Israel open the Kerem Shalom crossing to let the convoy pass, and 30 from the West Bank containing goods supplied by international organizations.

    The rocket and mortar barrage came after a senior Hamas official said in an interview published Tuesday that the Islamist group would be willing to renew its cease-fire with Israel without adding any new conditions.

    The barrage was apparently launched in response to the Israel Defense Forces' killing of three armed Palestinians on Tuesday, who were seen laying bombs along the Israel-Gaza border on Tuesday.

    Six rockets struck the Negev on Tuesday and four more hit the day before, despite Hamas' declaration on Monday that militant factions had agreed to a 24-hour truce.

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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Cabinet approves Gaza op after 70 missiles hit Israel
    2008-12-25
    The defense establishment is currently preparing for a military move against Hamas targets in Gaza, after the Islamist group launched more than 70 rockets into Israel on Wednesday.

    As an initial retaliatory measure, an Israel Air Force strike killed a Hamas gunman in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Israel's response will go beyond the air raid, an Israeli official told Haaretz. "Our response will be substantial and painful to Hamas," the official said.

    By late morning Wednesday, the Magen David Adom rescue service declared its highest level of alert.

    One of the rockets exploded next to a children's playground in the southern town of Netivot and a mortar shell scored a direct hit on a house in Kibbutz Sha'ar Hanegev, causing extensive damage. A house in the community of Sdot Negev was also severely damaged after it absorbed a direct rocket hit.

    Two more rockets, including a Grad-type missile, exploded in a public area in the northern Negev city of Ashkelon.

    During a cabinet meeting about the situation in and outside the Gaza Strip, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer gave ministers in attendance an overview of the potential retaliatory moves that the defense establishment is planning against Hamas' regime.

    Most strikes will come from the air and be aimed at facilities believed to be of strategic importance to Hamas' political and military leadership. However, the officer said that weather conditions are currently preventing the air force from launching the raids.

    According to officials in Jerusalem, the overview also included a special reference to the possible implications of attacking Hamas.

    "We are not eager to strike, but we will not hesitate to act," one official said. "If Hamas is looking for noise, we will make Gaza very noisy."

    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government said it had shown restraint until now but vowed to act if the salvoes continued.

    The same official said that Israel would be willing to extend the June cease-fire, which expired last week, if Hamas would agree to resuming it.

    Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is expected to arrive on Thursday in Cairo for a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose administration helped facilitate the cease-fire. Sources close to Livni said she intended to tell Mubarak that Israel will not accept Hamas' current terms for a ceasefire. Hamas' statements also contained a similar mix of threats and assurances.

    "Hamas will hit not only Sderot, but also what lies beyond Sderot," Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri said, in a possible reference to extended ballistic capabilities.

    Other spokespeople said the organization will agree to "resume" the ceasefire, if the organization's conditions are met. Hamas is demanding an improved ceasefire agreement, that also includes the West Bank.

    In a statement by Hamas' military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, a spokesperson warned that "thousands of additional Israelis will soon be within the range of our rockets if Israel continues with its aggression."

    "The residents of the south will stay in the bomb shelters for a long time," the Hamas statement continued, adding that "threats of an [Israeli] military offensive don't scare us because we are more prepared than ever."

    All Israeli towns within a 30-kilometer radius of the Gaza Strip were hooked up on Wednesday to an early warning system designed to deliver rocket launch alerts. Among the newly-connected towns and cities are Ofakim and Netivot.

    Ashdod, with its center just outside the 30-kilometer mark, is expected to be connected to the system within the next 24 hours. Some towns are already connected to the "Color Red" system, which alerts residents living within a seven-kilometer radius of the Strip.

    Meir Yifrach, head of Sdot Negev Regional Council, said that the current situation was intolerable and that "the people of the southern region of Israel are demanding that the government order the army to act in Gaza so that civilian life may be allowed to return to normal."

    "It defies logic that the firing of so many Qassam should be allowed to cause so much fear and damage to the people of Israel during Hannukah," he said. "It started with a drizzle, then the Qassams began to rain down hard, and now we're already experiencing a deluge."
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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Hamas: We're ready to fight Israel after cease-fire
    2008-11-19
    Hamas' military wing announced Tuesday it was "prepared for a confrontation with Israel" and for the end of the cease-fire with Israel. But political sources said the cease-fire was expected to go on.

    Hamas' Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades threatened to "turn the cease-fire tables on the heads of the Zionists," they said in a statement. Abu Obeida, the alias of a spokesman for the military wing, threatened that Hamas would "retaliate fiercely" should Israel resume its targeted-killings policy, as some defense officials have said were advisable after the cease-fire.

    By contrast, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said that since the cease-fire was not a unilateral move, both sides should honor their part.

    Meanwhile, in what could be seen as an indication of relative calm in the area, the Gaza regional division of the Israel Defense Forces received a new commander Tuesday in a military ceremony near the border with the Strip.

    The ceremony in which Brig.-Gen. Eyal Eisenberg replaced Moshe Tamir was supposed to take place last week, but was postponed because of Palestinian rocket fire. Tamir was replaced as commander of the regional division deployed around Gaza after having served for two years and three months.

    Militants fired rockets from the Strip into Israel Tuesday as well, but in a lower frequency than last week, when hostilities threatened to quash the cease-fire, which is due to expire next month. The Popular Resistance Committees and the Popular Front assumed responsibility for the rocket fire.

    Three Qassam rockets exploded Tuesday in an open field in the northern Negev. Militants later fired mortar rounds at an IDF force operating near the fence on the Palestinian side of the border. No casualties or damage to property were reported in either incident.

    The IDF Spokesman said the soldiers were searching for explosive devices which militants had placed to detonate near IDF patrols.

    Military sources said they believed that Hamas was not directly behind the rocket fire and hostilities, but rather one or some of the smaller Palestinian militant movements. The officers think Hamas is pressuring smaller Palestinian factions in an attempt to preserve the cease-fire.

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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Hamas' Deif: We'll continue to attack Zionist enemies of God
    2008-11-05
    Mohammed Deif, the former head of Hamas' military wing, on Tuesday declared that the Palestinian military group will continue to launch terror attacks against Israel. Speaking at a memorial ceremony for Hamas leader Fawzi Abu Al-Kara, Deif said his men will continue Jihad "until victory and martyrdom."

    "We will pursue the Zionist enemies of God," the former Iz al-Din al-Qassam commander vowed.

    Also Tuesday, Israel Radio reported that Hamas officials voiced skepticism that the United States presidential election would result in a change in U.S. policy in the Middle East and toward the group.
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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Hamas: West Bank militants must forcefully resist PA police
    2008-09-18
    The armed wing of the Islamist Hamas group on Wednesday urged militants in the West Bank to use force if security men loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction try to arrest them.

    Iz al-Din al-Qassam brigades, Hamas' armed wing, issued the call after it said Fatah security forces had detained two of its gunmen in the West Bank city of Hebron. "We call upon our people and the [fighters] to defend themselves by all available means against any attempt to arrest them by [Fatah security] services, which are now working as a unit of the Zionist army," the brigades said in a statement.

    The statement could raise tensions in the West Bank, where Fatah - whose forces lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas fighters in June 2007 - holds sway and is engaged in a U.S.-backed security campaign.

    In the West Bank, Palestinian police spokesman Adnan Damiri said: "These are irresponsible words and they know their actions fuel sedition and attack the legitimate authority."

    Hamas said some 300 of its members had been detained by Fatah in the West Bank over the past year, and about half remained in custody. Fatah says Hamas has arrested several hundred of its men in the Gaza Strip since the takeover, and at least 150 are still in jail.
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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Attempted coup splits Hamas military wing in two
    2008-06-25
    Looks like Trouble in Islamic Paradise...
    The Hamas military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, has split into two groups after an attempt to depose its military commander, Ahmed Al-Jabari. Palestinian sources say the attempt to replace Al-Jabari with Imad Akal failed, but has split the organization into two camps: one led by Al-Jabari and the other by Akal. Mohammed Deif, the former head of Iz al-Din al-Qassam, was behind the attempt, according to the sources.
    But I didn't know til this very day dat it wuz...Deif all along.
    The crisis in the Hamas military wing started, among other reasons, because of the long-standing disagreements and tension between Al-Jabari and the political leadership of Hamas in Gaza. But the tension exploded into the public eye as a result of the Hamas police's attempt to arrest members of the military group who were suspected of criminal activities. The Hamas militants resisted arrest, and the police and Iz al-Din al-Qassam members exchanged fire.
    Ya boys wanna come along to the station house with us?
    BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM...
    I'll take that as a 'no'?
    The head of the Hamas police in Gaza, Taufik Jabar, who is not a Hamas member, asked one of the heads of the Hamas political side, Said Siam, to intervene and ask Al-Jabari to hand over the militants - but Al-Jabari refused.
    The Al-Jabaris are killin us, Said! Lemme take them out!
    After the refusal, Siam turned to Deif, who was considered Israel's most wanted man for years; he holds no official post, but Deif is still considered to be a symbol of the movement and one of the most respected activists by Hamas militants.
    For justice we must go to...Don Deif.
    Siam asked him to arbitrate between the sides, examine the matter and make a decision. After a short time Deif announced that Akal would replace Al-Jabari, but he refused.
    Do you know who I am? I'm Al-Jabari! I made my bones when you were banging silky haired goats!
    In recent weeks assassination attempts have been made against one of Al-Jabari's closest supporters, Ali Jundiyeh, and Gazans assume Akal is behind the attempts.
    Maybe it's Hyman Roth?
    However, Hamas published an announcement that Jundiyeh was injured in a traffic accident.
    Car blow up? Riddled with bullets at a toll booth?
    Pothole. Bomb blew a few seconds early and left a crater ...
    Another of Al-Jabari's men had a bomb planted near his home.
    So how do we put it in the book, sarge?
    'Ambiguous' explosion. No, make it 'mysterious' explosion. Ah, lemme think about it.
    How about 'mystiguous' explosion?
    Verrrry good, Mahmoud.
    The military arm has suffered a number of splits and internal fights recently, which remind many of the earlier infighting among Fatah militias. According to the sources, Iz al-Din al-Qassam is divided, and there have been several attempts by commanders to kill their rivals to ensure they control an area or the organization's assets.
    Tell Said it was just business. I always liked him.
    I thought you were trying to kill Ali?
    Oh, sorry. Well, tell him then.
    In Khan Yunis, for example, for over a year there have been three local commanders, each of whom considers himself the chief in the region. In addition, senior Iz al-Din commanders have become more and more involved in criminal activities recently, and in particular in smuggling, which they control exclusively.
    Now, right now, we control the smuggling, which is the thing to have...
    However, the split has not yet had an impact on the cease-fire with Israel, and all members have been strictly keeping it, despite a debate among Hamas political leaders over the issue.
    Maybe the Israelis will just make popcorn and enjoy the show.
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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Hamas collects arms from militants in northern Gaza
    2006-02-14
    The Hamas military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, has recently finished registering and collecting weapons used by its activists in the northern Gaza Strip, a process sources said began at the order of the Hamas political bureau, after Hamas' victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections last month.

    The Palestinian and foreign sources said weapons collection in the central and southern parts of Gaza was hindered by fighting between Fatah and Hamas activists. The weapons that were collected have been transferred to Hamas military wing leaders in Gaza.

    Hamas sources said the weapons collection was an attempt to show the West that Hamas is succeeding in enforcing internal discipline. Some also see the move as a step toward the possibility that a future government will decide to extend the period of "calm," in which Palestinian organizations agree to refrain from attacking Israeli targets, and to collect weapons from all the armed Palestinian groups.

    However, other sources said the arms collection is the first step in unifying all armed Palestinian factions under one body, which will be under the jurisdiction of a future Hamas government. The unified factions are meant to constitute a counterweight to the PA security services, which will, for the most part, be under Abbas' jurisdiction.
    Thus setting the stage for the upcoming civil war. Ummm, yummy popcorn.
    The weapons collection comes in the wake of several moderate statements made by Hamas leaders recently in an effort to make the Hamas victory more acceptable in the eyes of the West. The most recent such comments came Monday, when a Russian newspaper published an interview with the head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Meshal, who was quoted as discussing, for the first time, the possibility that Hamas will disarm. Meshal also recognized the 1967 borders, despite the Hamas position that Palestine's borders are the river and the sea. "If Israel recognizes our rights and pledges to withdraw from all occupied lands, Hamas, and the Palestinian people together with it, will decide to halt armed resistance," Meshal told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
    "Until it's more convenient to start planting bombs again," he added.
    Meshal also criticized the roadmap, saying Hamas is not obligated to adhere to the Quartet-backed peace plan. He said no one was carrying out the roadmap demands and that the Palestinians need not do so.
    That should do it for the roadkill.
    In the Gaza Strip, Hamas has stopped holding armed parades following Palestinian criticism after an explosion killed 20 Palestinians during a Hamas parade in the Jabalya refugee camp in September. The explosion took place aboard a truck carrying Qassam rockets in the midst of the parade.
    Forgot the safety pin, huh?
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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Does Hamas still want you dead?
    2006-01-26
    With the Islamic Jihad, you know where you stand.

    They want you dead.

    It's part of a worldwide movement of wanting you dead. They take orders from people in Damascus who want you dead, people in Tehran who want you dead, people south of Beirut who want you dead.

    With Hamas, knowing where you stand is less cut and dried. With infinitely more support, personnel, sitzfleisch, than the Jihad, with more ideological independence, and a network of free medical clinics and free schools, it almost makes you wonder about the Death to Israel and Death to America and the second graders they dress up and parade around in fatigues and miniature M-16's and garlands of plastic grenades.

    Now as Hamas prepares to enter the Palestinian parliament, and perhaps the cabinet, it's time to ask - Will the real Hamas please stand up?

    Forget the learned punditry. It all comes down to this: Does Hamas, in fact, want you dead?

    On the one hand, there's Nouvelle Hamas, Hamas Lite, the latter-day Islamic Resistance Movement of conciliatory if studiously ambiguous statements.

    The poster boy for the New Hamas is Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tir, he of the leprechaun orange beard, who dispenses homespun medical advice as he chats amicably, disarmingly with reporters on the Palestinian campaign trail. The color of his beard and hair? Henna. It's proven itself good for dandruff, he observes. Even seems to have helped ease the migraines he once suffered.

    Then there's Hamas Classic. The Hamas of Khaled Mashaal. No negotiations. No clever wording. No part of "No" to misunderstand.

    "We don't have to make concessions to satisfy Israel," Mashaal said this week, "Our position now is not to negotiate with Israel. We will not kowtow."

    There was a time, starting with Hamas' founding at the very outset of the first Intifada, when it was no problem to know where you stood with them. They wanted you dead and/or gone from here. They had decided that we were all either from Russia or America, and we could all go back there now, thank you very much.

    At first they weren't prepared to do anything about it. They were later on, though. With a vengeance.

    Either because we killed their master bombmaker with an exploding cell phone to the ear, or in order to show their continued explosive capability, or both, they decided to decide the 1996 election and put Benjamin Netanyahu in power. It took them nine days. Four bombs, Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv. Sixty deaths. Hundreds and hundreds of injured.

    Feeling somewhat guilty about having helped them in the early 1980s, when we thought them to be apolitical, anti-Marxist, useful, we tried everything to stop them. Exiling 400 of them to a snowy, windblown hilltop in south Lebanon, including their pediatrician/president Abdel Aziz Rantisi, did nothing to deter them. We tried assassinating them, pressing the PA to jail them, pressing the PA to stop releasing them soon thereafter, assassinating them and assassinating them and assassinating them.

    Now we're at a loss. They're about to join the cabinet next door, and there's nothing we can do about it.

    Can we trust them? The question is academic. We won't trust them. We'll give good reasons why not. Take Sheikh Abu Tir. Now 55, he's spent most of his adult life in Israeli administrative detention or otherwise jailed for weapons possession, membership in a terrorist organization, and/or directing activities of Hamas' armed wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam.

    "Israel respects us when we are strong," Khaled Mashaal told a television interviewer. "This requires a long battle."

    Any way you look at it, however, the battle has changed. The last time Hamas launched a suicide bombing was in August, 2004.

    The tone has changed as well. Even the unbending Mahmoud Zahar, whose son was killed in an Israeli air strike and who narrowly escaped assassination himself, has given a measure of ground in recent statements.

    "Negotiation is not a taboo," Zahar told reporters this week. "Negotiations are a means. If Israel has anything to offer on the issues of halting attacks, withdrawal, releasing prisoners... then 1,000 means can be found."

    But a campaign is a campaign, and Zahar couldn't resist a dig at the rival Fatah party. "The political crime is when we sit with the Israelis and then come out with a wide smile to tell the Palestinian people that there is progress, when in fact, there is not."

    Oddly, the only moderating influence that seems to have consistently worked on Hamas is Palestinian public opinion.

    The group has entered politics, and even for those unafraid of a martyr's death, there is little more terrifying for a politician than his own constituents.

    "You are about to enter the Authority. We welcome you," Fatah Gaza leader Mohammed Dahlan told Zahar on the eve of the elections.

    "It's time for you to discover the suffering of being in government."
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    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Hamas candidate speaks of future talks with Israel
    2006-01-15
    "We'll negotiate [with Israel] better than the others, who negotiated for 10 years and achieved nothing," Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tir, second on the Hamas national list for the Palestinian parliamentary election, told Haaretz recently.

    Abu Tir does not dismiss future negotiations with Israel. He makes a great effort to explain to Israel and the world, which are attempting to come to terms with his organization's expected good showing in the elections later this month, that Hamas is playing by new rules.
    "For instance, now we allow the two-point conversion."
    According to Abu Tir, the movement's decision to enter the elections - as well as the decision to remove from its election platform sections in its constitution calling for Israel's destruction - are not only tactical measures. Rather, they represent a strategic shift. "In the past, it was said that we don't understand politics, only force, but we are a broad, well-grounded movement that is active in all areas of life. Now we are proving that we also understand politics better than the others," Abu Tir said.
    "And we've also seen that the Israelis have more force than we'll ever have. Let me tell you, my brothers, that the light came on after the last helizap," he added.
    Abu Tir, 55, from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Umm Tuba, does not have a high media profile in either the West Bank or Israel. However, he is considered one of Hamas' most prominent individuals. He was released from an Israeli prison about six months ago, after spending most of the last 30 years in administrative detention or serving sentences for membership in a terror organization, weapons possession and directing the activities of the Hamas military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam. Following his release, Abu Tir was recruited by the Hamas leadership to head its national list after the group's Gaza leader, Ismail Haniyeh. "The use of the word muqawama [resistance in Arabic, used by Hamas and many other organizations to signify the armed struggle] in the platform does not necessarily refer to weapons and the use of force," Abu Tir said.
    "What else could it mean?"
    "Um, .. we're working on that. We'll let you know."
    When asked whether Hamas would negotiate with Israel after the elections, he said, "We will not give Israel the justification and the legitimacy to occupy our lands." But he immediately added that "we are not saying 'never.' The question of negotiations will be presented to the new parliament and, as with every issue, when we reach the parliament it will be discussed and decided in a rational manner."
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