Even as the Abbas government does Israel's bidding, it is being targeted by its new patron, reports Khaled Amayreh from East Jerusalem The Ramallah-based Palestinian "emergency government" continues to adamantly reject any rapprochement with Hamas, despite growing calls to this effect by a number of key Arab and Muslim countries as well as Palestinian intellectuals. Instead, the government, backed by the United States and Israel, is asserting its authority (although this doesn't mean much in real terms given the ubiquitous reality of the Israeli occupation), ostensibly in preparation for holding early general elections with or without Hamas's participation. Nabil Amr, an aide to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted as saying this week that it was likely that the term of the Fayyad government would be extended indefinitely despite "the legal reservations". Amr suggested that the inability of the Palestinian Legislative Council to convene would eventually force the Fatah-dominated PA leadership to take "extra-judicial" or even "non-lawful" decisions to extend the term of the present government in Ramallah indefinitely. As many as 50 Palestinian lawmakers, mostly affiliated with Hamas, are effectively being held hostage in Israeli dungeons and used as bargaining chips in an attempt to force Palestinian resistance groups to release an Israeli soldier taken prisoner in the Gaza Strip. The Abbas-Fayyad regime, relying on the "legitimacy of the fait accompli ", Western backing and Israeli acceptance, has adopted several measures which it hopes will eventually enable the Abbas-Dahlan camp to "legally" and "lawfully" reverse the outcome of the 2006 legislative elections which Hamas won. Needless to say, the exclusion of Hamas from any Palestinian political authority has been a consistent demand by Israel and the Bush administration. In addition to the continuing de-legitimisation of the present Hamas- dominated parliament, which could shortly culminate in its dissolution, the Abbas-Fayyad regime is employing every possible political, economical and propaganda strategy to marginalise Hamas. This is in an attempt to bring about new elections they hope to win. To effect this strategy, the PA, in coordination with Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, (who are ironically being hunted by the Israeli army at present despite Abbas's obsequious pandering to the Olmert government) is hounding and imprisoning Hamas activists and leaders in droves in the West Bank. This week, the PA arrested 10 pro-Hamas activists including Islamic lawmaker Ahmed Al-Haj Ali from Nablus. Ali was snatched soon after he had held "reconciliation talks" with local security officials. It was not clear if the Hamas-associated MP was arrested by a different security agency or on orders from the very people with whom he had just met. The PA claims that its crackdown on Hamas activists in the West Bank is intended to prevent the occurrence of a Hamas takeover in the West Bank. "They had an organised chain of command and weapons. They were even trained in various places. We are currently working towards dismantling the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank," said one PA security official as quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The unnamed official added that Abbas's security forces intend to continue battling the establishment of a Hamas network in the area. However, this claim seems utterly disingenuous if only because Israel tightly controls every square metre of the occupied territories which would make it difficult for a large-scale Hamas armament let alone a possible takeover by the group. Interestingly, PA arrests of Hamas activists often occur simultaneously with the Israeli military arresting or targeting the same individuals. Israel rounds up an average of 15 to 20 Hamas supporters per night, many of whom are held captive, without charge or trial, in the notorious detention camp, known as Kitziot, in the heart of the Negev desert. Needless to say, this perceived or real collusion between the PA and the Israeli army against Hamas is bound to seriously harm the PA and Fatah's image in the short and long term. In an effort to rout this the Ramallah government is utilising its newly- found financial resources. This week, the Olmert government decided to release $118 million of frozen Palestinian customs revenue, which will enable the Ramallah government to pay its employees and civil servants a full salary for the first time in 18 months. However, no salaries will be paid to "disloyal" civil servants and other employees, a reference to the thousands of Gazan workers who take their orders and instructions from the Haniyeh government in Gaza. That government, which levies taxes from Gaza, can presumably pay the salaries of these people, such as members of the Hamas Executive Force, which last month routed and ousted forces loyal to former strongman Mohamed Dahlan from the entire Gaza Strip. Hence, the measure will have little effect on the Gaza government. The Israeli decision to release a portion of desperately needed Palestinian tax revenues came with certain conditions. Olmert told the Israeli cabinet this week that Israel would stop transferring the money to the Abbas government and boycott his regime the moment he agreed to renew contacts with Hamas. Olmert said the transfer of the rest of the frozen money would take six months in order to test Abbas's compliance. This suggests that Israel is hell-bent on wresting from Abbas whatever free will he may have, rendering him and his regime beholden to Israel. More to the point, Israel doesn't seem interested in "strengthening" Abbas as much as it is in perpetuating, for as long as possible, the intra- Palestinian rift, which provides Israel with a pretext to refuse to indulge in a real peace process. In addition to maintaining the present estrangement between Abbas and Hamas for as long as possible, Israel also hopes that by making Abbas and his regime inured to dependence on Israel, at least financially, the Ramallah regime will eventually agree to give up claims to occupied East Jerusalem and especially to the equally paramount issue of the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees uprooted from their homeland when Israel was created in 1948. So, the game is now to utilise Palestinian money for the purpose of coercing a Palestinian government to compromise Palestinian national interests, long held by virtually all Palestinians as sacred and constituting "the" ultimate red lines. Needless to say, this approach is short-sighted, if not outright stupid. In Palestine, any leader agreeing to compromise on these fundamental issues will be viewed as the ultimate quisling who stands to lose more than just his political career and reputation, but his life as well. In fact, Israel is showing signs of desperation as to how best to help Abbas. The Israeli media reported Tuesday that Israel was "pressurising" the king of Morocco to visit Ramallah for the purpose of "enhancing" Abbas's legitimacy. Moreover, Israel has also voiced "displeasure" with Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for advocating renewed dialogue between Fatah and Hamas. Saudi King Abdullah last week refused to meet Abbas in the Jordanian capital, Amman, presumably because Riyadh thought Abbas played a key role in thwarting the Saudi-mediated Mecca Agreement reached on 8 February. Similarly, Egyptian and Qatari leaders have been calling for reconciling differences between Fatah and Hamas, a language Abbas and his supporters are in no mood to even listen to. It is difficult to understand why Abbas and Fayyad are going with the Israeli flow, namely trying to appease the Israelis. Last week, Fayyad summoned nearly 800 Islamic preachers and mosque imams to Ramallah where he warned them against "incitement". Fayyad told the mostly pro-Hamas Waqf employees that the new government would seek to re-establish law and order throughout the West Bank. One of the attendees told Al-Ahram Weekly that Abbas was behaving like the head of a sovereign government of a sovereign state. "How could an educated person like Fayyad fall into this trap?" asked the young imam from Hebron.
