While most Palestinians support Hizbullah, some fear being identified too closely with Lebanon's plight, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank While the vast majority of Palestinians strongly identify with Hizbullah in the current showdown with Israel, Palestinian Islamic and nationalist leaders have been careful to maintain "the distinctiveness" of their cause. This attitude reflects a certain amount of anxiety that lumping the two situations -- Lebanon and occupied Palestine -- in a single package could eventually harm the Palestinian cause, the central source of instability and wars in the Middle East. One Palestinian government minister who has not been arrested by Israel said, "of course we want to see Hizbullah win. After all, Hizbullah's is a just cause and we are facing the same murderous enemy. But we can't entrust our cause to non- Palestinian hands and non- Palestinian minds." This sentiment doesn't necessarily reflect real fears that Hizbullah may be trying to pull the Palestinian issue towards the Iranian-Shia axis, as has been suggested in some regional quarters. In fact, the Palestinians, including Palestinian Islamists, are too independent-minded to allow their enduring cause to be hijacked by their own fellow Sunni Arabs, let alone by the Shia Hizbullah. This week, Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, Mohamed Nazal, pointed out that the issue of the captured Israeli soldier in Gaza shouldn't be connected with the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah fighters earlier this month. Nazal explained that the circumstances in Gaza and Lebanon were entirely dissimilar, arguing that while Hizbullah could hide captured Israeli prisoners for years, Palestinian resistance groups couldn't do the same successfully. With this awareness in mind, Palestinian resistance groups have given their consent to an Egyptian proposal stipulating a general ceasefire as well as the release of the captured Israeli soldier in return for an Israeli commitment to free an undisclosed number of Palestinian political and resistance prisoners, including children, women and veteran detainees. Also to be freed are Palestinian lawmakers and government ministers held hostage by Israel for four weeks, ostensibly to coerce Hamas into freeing the captured soldier. Palestinian official Ibrahim Abu Al-Naja said the ceasefire would be mutual and Israel would stop all assassinations and incursions into the Gaza Strip and provide "clear guarantees" to free veteran prisoners, minors and female prisoners incarcerated in Israeli detention camps. "The purpose of this initiative is to alleviate Palestinian suffering. We believe that it is up to Israel to demonstrate a willingness to end this crisis or keep up its aggression against our people." So far, the Israeli government has rejected ideas presented by Egyptian mediators implying a prisoner swap with the Hamas-led government, insisting rather that Israel alone will choose if and when to release Palestinian prisoners. "Israel destroyed half of Gaza and massacred 118 Palestinian civilians in this latest aggression, all in the name of freeing the soldier. We will not free him unless Israel frees Palestinian prisoners. We are no less determined than Hizbullah in this regard," said a spokesman of Hamas's military wing. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was hopeful that he would be able to convince visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whom he met in Ramallah Tuesday, to press Israel to accept the Egyptian package. Expectations are that Rice would demand a re-wording of the terms to guarantee that Hamas does not emerge or appear victorious. There are two main reasons behind Hamas's perceived flexibility with regard to Egyptian mediation efforts: first, the unmitigated campaign of murder and terror by Israel against mainly Palestinian civilians in the already bombed-out Gaza Strip. According to the latest information, 90 per cent of the 118 Palestinians killed by Israel in the last month were civilians. Victims include several entire families exterminated in aerial bombings. The criminal bombing of civilian homes -- a clear-cut war crime under international humanitarian law -- is meant to strike fear in the hearts of Palestinians and push them towards unconditional capitulation to Israel. Meanwhile, the world seemingly doesn't give a damn; at best turned towards the new front in Israel's bloodthirsty quest for regional domination: Lebanon. Indeed, most influential quarters in the world, including the European Union, seem to believe that Israeli criminality -- its systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and intransigence in the face of diplomatic efforts and pressure -- is a fait accompli. Second, Palestinian leaders and laymen alike are anxious that Israel, after ending its aggression in the north, may very well re-start a fresh bloody onslaught in Gaza and bomb anew the Strip's already tenuous infrastructure with the purpose of "compensating" the Israeli public for Israeli casualties in the war with Hizbullah. Such fears are not fanciful at all. This week, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told reporters in Tel Aviv that, "after finishing with Hizbullah, the Israeli army will move against Hamas in order to teach them a lesson they will never forget." Diskin's remarks shouldn't be interpreted as rhetoric. The Israeli army has already stepped up its terrorist onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. In Gaza, Israeli tanks bombarded civilian neighbourhoods in Beit Hanun, Beit Lahya and central Gaza, killing and maiming scores of civilians, including children. According to Palestinian health officials, Israel is now killing an average of five Palestinian civilians per day, giving credence to claims that Israel is actually waging a slow-motion genocide against a people who want to be free from decades of a military occupation. In Nablus, in the northern West Bank, the Israeli army this week utterly destroyed an extensive compound housing government ministry offices known as the "mukata", seemingly a reprisal for the killing of an Israeli soldier in the city last week. According to local officials, the financial cost is in the vicinity of $100 million.
