Hamas picks new leader from military
Israel fears his ‘hawkish’ views
GAZA’S Hamas movement has elected a new leader from its hardcore military wing, replacing the more pragmatic Ismail Haniyeh who in turn will replace politburo chief-in-exile Khaled Meshal who led the more moderate political wing of the Islamic movement.
The appointment of Yahya Sanwar, 55 – who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Israelis for the murder of Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel and subsequently released in a 2011 prisoner exchange – portends poorly for any hopes of peace in the territory, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
There has long been a political divide between the military and political wings of Hamas, which was founded in the late 1980s, with tacit support by Israel as a bulwark against the then predominant Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
The political wing under Meshal has been open to negotiations with Israel, whereas the military wing has favoured military confrontations with the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli media and intelligence, Sanwar’s hawkish views are accompanied by apocalyptic views of eternal war with Israel.
Exacerbating the situation are Salafist groups in the Gaza Strip who have tried to force a confrontation between Hamas and Israel by firing rockets into the latter, knowing that Israel’s predictably harsh response could ignite a new conflagration.
These Islamic State-affiliated groups disagree with Hamas’s more moderate interpretation of Islam and want to upset the current cold-peace status with Israel.
Simultaneously, Israel’s most right-wing government since the establishment of the state in 1948 has grown increasingly hawkish.
Member of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, recently warned that the next war with Gaza would involve a harsh military confrontation, making previous wars pale in comparison, despite strong criticism from the international community over the excessive use of force by the Israelis.
Yoav Galant, a former commander of Israel’s Southern Command, told Israel’s Army Radio last week that Israel must be ready for a confrontation with Gaza in the spring of the northern hemisphere.
Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing religious Israel home party, added that “the next round of fighting is a question of when, not if, and this time we must win.
“Not a draw, but rather a clear victory.”
Concurring that a bloody conflagration was imminent, Samir Awad a political analyst from Birzeit University, near Ramallah in the central Palestinian West Bank, said the situation on the border between Israel and Gaza was precarious.
“In the next war, which is not far away, Israel’s response will be severe and even more disproportionate than previously,” said Awad.
Meanwhile, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) has accused the Israeli government of neglecting half of the Arab Bedouin population in the Negev where there have been bloody clashes between Israeli security forces and protesters over land expropriation and the destruction of Bedouin villages recently.
“Instead of reforming its policy of non-existent planning and development and consequent home demolitions regarding the Bedouin population in the Negev, the government decision on Sunday to adopt a five-year plan for the social and economic development of the Bedouin population continues this harmful policy,” said Acri.
This policy determines that Bedouin cannot live in rural villages the way Jews do, and must face unrelenting pressure to leave their villages to the recognised towns, added the civil rights organisation.
The stated objective of the fiveyear plan in the Negev is to improve the social and economic conditions of the existing Bedouin villages in the Negev, but it is in fact ignoring half the Bedouin population there.