The Horror of Hamas

The wretched situation in Gaza has just got worse

ANYBODY who thinks Israel is the worst enemy of the Palestinian people trapped in the cauldron that is Gaza should think again. Because since the Israelis evacuated Gaza in 2005 ordinary people have been trapped by a political firefight between the two main factions in Palestinian politics, Fatah and Hamas. And last week the two sides started shooting for real as they fought for the spoils of squalor in the impoverished Gaza. With the defeat of Fatah forces there, the world now faces the alarming prospect of Gaza and the West Bank, the other territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority, being ruled by two gangs of gunmen at war with each other. Hamas, which publicly demands the end of Israel, can claim that the core of the conflict is the willingness of Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to talk to Israel. But it is also an argument over power and patronage. While Hamas beat Fatah fair and square in January 2006 elections, the defeated faction refused to give up the public service jobs, especially those in the security services, which are used to reward supporters in poverty-stricken Gaza. And now Hamas has acted to ensure its supporters are paid with what little public money there is. Of course there would be a great deal more if Hamas renounced its demands for an end to Israel, which led to Western powers ending aid when it first formed a government. But rather than admit political reality, it is likely Hamas will now ratchet up the anti-Israeli rhetoric and appeal for help from Islamists who also want the Jewish state destroyed.

And so a faction fight between what passes for pragmatists and extremists has turned into a disaster for the Palestinian people. And not just them. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has welcomed the way Mr Abbas has removed Hamas members from the PA cabinet. But while there is a possibility of some sort of formal accommodation between Israel and the Palestinians on the West Bank, there can be no lasting peace while Gaza is a base for missiles launched against Israeli towns and a giant barrack for suicide bombers. The split in the PA also signals dangers for all of the Middle East, as well as the wider world. Hamas is not just committed to terrorism against Israel, it is an Islamist organisation opposed to everybody who does not share its fundamentalist views. It is already on the payroll of the Iranian theocracy and in sympathy with the religious zealots now trying to destabilise the Government of multi-faith Lebanon. Over the past few months, attacks in Gaza on the sort of secular services Islamic fundamentalists fear, internet cafes, video shops, and the like, have increased. Hamas has always shared al-Qa'ida's taste for terror tactics. It appears that the Palestinian faction is embracing Osama bin Laden's values.

With Hamas in control, Gaza is now more than the southern front in the 60-year standoff between Israelis and Palestinians. It is on the verge of becoming another Middle East battleground in the struggle between the values of the modern world and the medieval mindset of al-Qa'ida and its ilk. The irony is that Hamas came to power by winning an honest election on a promise that it would provide better services than the complacent and corrupt Fatah. Now, given half a chance, the people of Gaza would most likely vote Hamas out given last week's violence and the way its refusal to negotiate with Israel ensures an absence of Western aid. But it is doubtful they will get the chance. In Gaza, Islamic zealots now have a tiny state to experiment with and they will not willingly listen to the victims of their zealotry, wherever they live and whatever they believe.