Intentionally or not, Hamas and Hizbullah are speaking a similar discourse. Sherine Bahaa reviews their rhetoric "You have created resistance in every household," Hamas's leader in exile Khaled Meshaal said, referring to Israelis in a televised speech earlier this week. Listening to Meshaal brought to memory the words of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on 16 July 2006: "[The resistance] is one project and the resistance movement is one movement and has one course, one destiny, one goal, despite its different parties, factions, beliefs, sects and intellectual and political trends... Resistance movements in this region, especially in Lebanon and Palestine, complement one another and are contiguous groups." Hamas is Sunni but Hizbullah is Shia, Hamas is working mainly in Gaza while Hizbullah has its base in South Lebanon. Observers of politics in the Middle East know that cooperation or coordination between Shias and Sunnis is unusual, but the resistance has made it possible. Today, almost three weeks since the beginning of Israel's Gaza carnage, it is clear that the present events are an extension of -- if not identical to -- the July War on Lebanon in 2006. By Israel's own admission, one motive behind its current onslaught is to restore its deterrence image lost in the 2006 Lebanon war. Resistance, however, should not be reduced only to Hamas and Hizbullah, according to Refaat Sid Ahmed, head of the Jaffa Centre for Strategic Studies. "We should not see the resistance as two factions only. There are 13 Palestinian factions striving now for their cause." Who is winning, who is losing? According to Meshaal, Israel's offensive on Gaza, which has killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, has failed: Hamas is still firing rockets at Israel. "Every rocket fired into Israel is a victory for Hamas," said one observer. "In all modesty... I can say with full confidence that on the military level the enemy has totally failed, it has not achieved anything," said Meshaal. Others disagree, saying that Qassam rockets fired at Israel are no more than a minor irritation, causing no significant casualties. So far they have caused less than 20 Israeli casualties since the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. They are, however, a source of embarrassment for the Israelis. "Has it stopped the rockets?" Meshaal asked. So far no confirmed figure of Israeli casualties since the outburst of its invasion has been announced. But definitely Israeli casualties are only a small fraction of the number of Palestinians killed since 27 December. Will the escalating number of Palestinian casualties undermine the steadfastness of the resistance in Gaza? Nasrallah has previously explained in speeches the advantage the resistance has over its enemy: the Israelis fear death, whereas Arab fighters see death in resistance as martyrdom. Hamas leaders are now drawing on this same spirit. It is difficult to fight an opponent that has overcome his fear of dying. Hamas has benefited a lot from Hizbullah's experience. Gaining support and solidarity from the masses through televised speeches and rallies was a technique championed by Hizbullah. Likewise, Hamas is using the media to convey its message. But in Gaza, the situation is slightly different, Hamas has more than one person speaking to the public, sometimes it is Osama Hemdan speaking from Beirut, Ismail Haniyeh from his Gaza bunker, or less often Ahmed Nazzal speaking from Damascus, and Sami Abu Zahri from Algeria. In the 2006 war, Nasrallah was the only person to address the masses. It could be due to his charisma or credibility. But in the end as Khalil Harb, Lebanese political writer in the daily As-Safir, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "It presents Hamas as if it has 100 voices, however this does not mean division within the movement. We have Palestinians inside Gaza, and those of the Diaspora, in addition to the refugees, and those in the West Bank." For Sid Ahmed, psychological warfare is a significant element in the present conflict. "One can not expect Meshaal to come out and talk pragmatically, like Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. His high pitched tone is logical; he is bruised by the war machine." If they have not used this kind of speeches, "the alternative is bitter, it would result in a mood of defeat and depression," explained Sid Ahmed. Hamas has not only imitated Hizbullah in their manner of speech, but also in how they took things into their own hands. Hamas is determined to single-handedly change the direction of the Palestinian struggle, away from negotiations that Israel has never approached in good faith. In a clear nod to Hamas's Palestinian rivals in Ramallah, Meshaal announced that any kind of negotiation with Israel before its attacks come to a halt would be a sign of disrespect for the blood of Gaza's martyrs. Sid Ahmed is sympathetic with Meshaal's condemnation of what he labelled as the "realistic camp". "By this he was referring to Arab regimes and media that still talk of peace negotiations as a strategic option. They should be called the Don Quixote camp. They are fighting in their own dreams," he said. Meshaal also dismisses the idea of deploying peacekeeping troops to Gaza, saying such a move would only serve to guarantee the security of Israel and result in attempts to disarm Palestinian resistance forces. He underlines that resistance is the only option, in part because the war in Gaza has been imposed on the Palestinian people. Nonetheless, Meshaal is not closing all doors. Conscious of political developments unfolding around him, including Egyptian and Turkish mediation efforts and UN Security Council action, Meshaal spoke of finding a "way out". This is not to say Meshaal is not defiant. In his last speech, he voiced his conditions to the world, drawing lines between the US- Israeli "moderate" Arab axis and the jabhit al-mumanaa (political and military resistance front) that includes Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. Indeed, Meshaal has come a long way from the speech he delivered on the second day of the Israeli onslaught. Then, Meshaal confined his discourse to reciting verses of the Quran and appealing to each to perform his role. "But as time went on, and the steadfastness of the Palestinian fighters became evident, he took the tone of the military commander," Sid Ahmed noted.
