Tonight, Hamas official Ismail Radwan called for a third intifada on Al-Aqsa TV and other media outlets: “Our people in the West Bank, Gaza and inside [Israel], tomorrow is the day of rage, the day of confrontation, and the day of renewing the intifada.”
Hamas is attempting to ride popular sentiment and ignite a fire which the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s biggest asset in sustaining the occupation, cannot control.
A whole generation of Palestinian youth have grown under Israeli occupation in the post-second intifada era, along with the PA’s “security coordination” with Israel, and sentiment against the US-funded PA is widespread. While the PA typically collaborates to repress Palestinian demonstrations, as it did with brute force in the beginning of the latest protests, officials have opted to let them continue for fear the demonstrators may turn on it, finally eroding and collapsing the PA.
Meanwhile, support for Hamas has steadily increased as its strategy of military confrontation resonates with a majority of Palestinians. The election of Hamas in Bir Zeit University – the West Bank’s most liberal university – served as a bellwether for a political shift occurring among the young and educated Palestinian generation. The vote also indicated a major reaffirmation of Palestinian support for armed resistance.
However, as strong as Hamas present itself on the ground, it has never been more weak and isolated abroad. Hamas’ relationship with Iran has severed, leaving only Qatar and Turkey as regional allies.
On the military side Hamas is projecting weakness to Israel as well. Despite calls for resumed operations on Israeli targets after airstrikes killed a pregnant woman and her baby girl early Sunday morning, none of the armed factions made statements that operations would resume in any capacity. As Hamas’ Basem Naim, Head of Council on International Relations explained to me in an interview, “Hamas is not interested in escalation.”
Still, Al-Qassam, Hamas’ armed wing, and other resistance factions have continued to prepare for another inevitable Israeli assault, expanding the vast networks of tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip.
In the meantime, Israeli snipers continue to fire live ammunition and explosive dum dum rounds at protesters in Gaza. Hundreds of demonstrators have been injured in the last week and at least eleven killed including three boys from ages 13-15. Similar to the PA, Hamas security forces have, for the most part, not impeded the demonstrations, which it often does.
Tonight, after Hamas called for an intifada, additional Israeli forces deployed to Gaza’s borders.
Mass demonstrations are expected tomorrow and Israeli forces will presumably continue to shoot to kill. The futility and bloody reality of Israel’s deadly deterrence policy will likely be on full display.
Last Friday, an estimated 1,000 demonstrators, mostly from from the Gaza area, marched down a dirt road and through a wide, open field to the Nahal Oz crossing. Before they were able to reach the fence, Israeli forces shot them like sitting ducks on an open pond.
On Tuesday, youth from the northern areas of the Gaza Strip marched to the Erez crossing. Unlike the open area of the Nahal Oz crossing, the terrain at the massive terminal traps protesters between a rugged desert overlooked by a remote control machine gun and a kilometers-long iron cage that serves as the crossing’s entry/exit point, effectively reducing the protestors to fish in a barrel for Israeli soldiers. At least three heavily-armed soldiers were stationed, untouchable, on an elevated platform behind a concrete wall in front of a metal fence dozens of meters high where they fired directly down on defenseless, crouching protesters who could throw stones and an occasional molotov cocktail.
By staying quiet military while attempting to depose Israel’s occupation subcontractor in the West Bank, Hamas may end up the beneficiary of the current uprisings. However, as Israeli troops amass, the situation can easily escalate into a military confrontation – a possibility Palestinian armed factions have quietly prepared for. While the political factions continue to posture, Israel remains in ultimate control of the situation and continues to pour gas on the flames, leading the entire land into deeper violence and chaos.
Well, it is easy for Hamas to want troubles at the other faction`s territory – the prices will be paid by the people THERE. The PA, while using the usual “blame all on Israel” rhetoric – possibly forced to do so- still tries to act responsibly and avoid unnecessarily boiling the atmosphere and with that engender more bloodshed.
The point is though that all this has by now become a ritual where the different actors always duly perform their role and say what everybody fully expects they will. That`s in a way also good news because in the absence of any chance of a formal agreement – the official gaps are clearly unbridgeable – the next good thing is a routine that while not exactly pleasant can still be considered as the new “normal” – good periods followed by some kind of an explosion (which can vary in details) and so on forever.
Indeed, come to think about that it`s a bit like (human) life. Once in a while you get sick, go to the doctor, take medicines, get back on your feet again and so on and on. Even as this Nature`s devised program is pretty irritating few people look for some ultimate “solution” by which they will never fall ill – they know it`s hopeless – instead, they look for better medicines and try to prolong healthy periods by their actions.
True, Isreal is making isrealis unsafe to travel out of isreal. Umm, so what? isrealis are running a fascist apartheid germanic regime and should not really feel safe, although inr eality they are very safe, who is going to attack isrealis around here/ No one. So, what are we talking about here. If it was my cat against the Isrealis, the cat would win, because this here cat is tired of me giving it insufficient food and making it lie in filth in the basement. Her name is Winter, and she will get you soon, slowly, culminating in late February. Yes, jerks feel unsafe when the lights come on, and those who are bullies hate it when they are shown up by a bigger bully, or by the truth. They get reincarnated as insects, not as Cows. As a Jew an Intafada or whatever sounds like what the jews in auschwitz tried to do when outnumbered and facing destruction, they were real heroes and died for glory, not for nothing, each intifada or rebellion is its own thing, but if i was in Auschwitz or in a Concentated camp like Gaza I would also rebel. not to would be acting like my relatives did during the holocaust, as such I never met them. get it? Its that or hartford 4/4/86 all over again. hamas is not a faction they appear to have the support of everyone, despite what some say, I am sure there is a debate about when to resist, I am sure my relatives who were killed by the nazi debated leaving also, and never did. but one can’t eat or farm on or live on a debate, can they? The debate is over it appears. Jstreet wants to debate I guess, with who I don’t know. What would Jerry Do?
War what is it good for
When will the lamb lie down with the lion
Peace and love
How many times must Israel carry out mass murder before the world’s leaders say enough?! Israel stole land and colonized settlers from Moldova and other places year after year for decades contravening International Law and no one put a stop to this because Zionism’s reach and influence corrupt absolutely. Now that our leaders have surrendered everything to Zionism the slightest criticism of Israel is met with a barrage of Zionist attacks and everyone is forced to look away while Israel carries out its cyclical assault on Palestinians and subjects them to all manner of indignity even in their holiest temple, the only place where they could find some dignity, refuge and autonomy from this severe oppression. What do they have left but to resist this abominable crime against them? And when they resist, because the world has abandoned them and because it is their right given the massive injustice they’re being subjected to that breaches international laws that no country has the guts to enforce against Zionism they are saddled with all the blame!
This is an intolerable crime against humanity that must be condemned on every level and in every part of this world.
Zionism exploits moral weakness in our society and compromises the moral integrity of our leaders and outrages every fibre of our being.
@kalithea
Reading this it is clear to me that you are in an acute danger of losing your mind by this insatiable hate of yours of the State of Israel and its people. An obsession carried so far can consume a person completely – you stop seeing anything else but the imagined pure maliciousness of your fixation target to which you attribute any evil in this world – likely, wondering how come not everybody see what you have unraveled so unequivocally. Think about that.