The Palestinian organizations responsible for the massive firing of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds at Israel over the past few days may harbor hostility toward one another, but they share a common goal: Dragging Israel into a massive activity in the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday, it was the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades that fired a heavy salvo of rockets at Sderot. But despite their affiliation, the men who launched the rockets are not taking orders from Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
They are a group of militants embroiled in a protracted conflict with Hamas. Their feud with the Islamist organization began when Hamas engaged the Khiles clan in gunfights. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades men want to place Hamas and Israel on a collision course leading up to a large-scale Israeli incursion.
The men who fired the mortars yesterday see this incursion as a possible means of overthrowing Hamas' grasp on the Gaza Strip; Hamas conquered the Strip five months ago.
But before the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fired rockets, Islamic Jihad and Hamas fired rockets. They, too, are trying to provoke Israel into launching an offensive, which would quash all hope for the Annapolis peace summit scheduled to take place next month.
However, Hamas itself is divided with regard to the U.S. conference. Some of the so-called moderate forces within the organization maintain that Hamas should refrain from launching suicide attacks within Israel or escalating hostilities near the Strip before the conference. They argue that the meeting is doomed to fail either way. "We don't need to be blamed for the summit's failure," they say.
Hamas extremists believe Hamas should not wait for the results of summit - it should instead cause it to fail. The radicals are headed by Mahmoud Al-Zahar, Said Sayyam, Ahmed al-Ja'abri and others. But the radicals and moderates in Hamas are not on equal footing.
The moderates, headed by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his men, is hardly ever heard recently. The more radical Hamas activists, meanwhile, have taken over all of the Hamas rallies in Gaza and become the decision maker in the Strip.
This became apparent in the last rally in Jabalya, a refugee camp north of Gaza City. Radical leader Nizar Riyan promised the crowd there that Hamas operatives would be praying in the PA government compound in Ramallah, the Muqata, and have ousted Abbas by next fall.
Riyan's colleague, Mushir al-Masri went even further, promising the crowd that the chairman would be slain and that any reference to his existence effaced. Political commentators from Gaza are now saying Israel's refusal to deal with Haniyeh's government resulted in the radicals rising to prominence at the expense of the pragmatists. Similar claims were made when the second intifada broke out on 2001, when Fatah had still been in charge.
The same commentators and analysts are saying that every day that Israel imposes collective punishments on the population of the Gaza Strip, more civilians join the Hamas' circle of support.
But the Israeli defense establishment and the Palestinian Authority believe that sanctions against Gaza's population will serve to end Hamas' reign. The degree of popularity which the Islamist organization currently enjoys is difficult to quantify, but its military strength is far from waning.
The organization's military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, is seeing more and more young Gazans joining its ranks. Hamas' Executive Force is also registering a hike in the number of new recruits. When job opportunities are virtually non-existent, a monthly salary of NIS 1,200 is an excellent occupational default.
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