BICOM

Key Points

• More rockets are launched at Israel on Thursday morning; Israel targets militant
• US envoy George Mitchell traveled to Ramallah today; discussed opening border crossings and ceasefire in Wednesday meeting with PM Olmert
• Arab commentators denounce Hamas; ridicule claims of victory

 

Key Statements

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (28/1): “The permanent opening of the crossing points in the Gaza Strip will occur within the context of Gilad Shalit’s release.”

Defence Minister Ehud Barak (28/1): “There might be one or two more incidents like this [border attacks which killed a soldier], but all in all we feel we are on the way to attaining quiet.”

Hamas-led factions in Damascus (28/1): “Factions of the resistance reject the signing of a truce agreement before the opening of all crossing points, the lifting of the blockade and the arrival of supplies.”

Egyptian journalist Nabil Sharaf Al-Din (27/1): “If victory means one dead Israeli for every 100 dead Palestinians, the destruction of 40,000 homes, the utter destruction of the infrastructure of the wretched, besieged Gaza Strip, and having to watch these gruesome images on TV day and night – we do not want such a victory…We do not need any more such victories. Whoever enters a war without properly assessing his position is a criminal. If Hamas knew anything about politics… But unfortunately, they understand politics like I understand Chinese.”

 

Situation on the ground

Two more Qassam rockets fired from Gaza landed on Thursday morning near the western Negev town of Sderot, following a rocket attack Wednesday morning. Shortly after Thursday’s attack, the Israeli Air Force targeted a militant from the Global Jihad in the Gaza Strip who was responsible for the border attacks which killed an Israeli soldier on Tuesday. The Israeli strike also wounded several bystanders, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

Israeli officials made clear yesterday that all rocket fire will be met with a determined Israeli response. Defence Minister Ehud Barak cancelled a scheduled visit to the US yesterday, in which he had been due to meet with Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, and instead met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to determine Israel’s response to the continued attacks from Gaza. Israel is having to carefully measure its response to attacks so as to maintain its deterrence but not diminish chances for an extended ceasefire.

Humanitarian aspects

The influx of humanitarian aid to Gaza resumed on Wednesday, following interruptions caused by Tuesday’s border attack which killed an Israeli soldier. The Kerem Shalom, Karni, Nahal Oz and Erez crossings were all in operation. 174 trucks entered with 4,701 tons of goods, as well as 45,000 litres of heavy duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 3,116 tons of grain via the Karni conveyor belt. All but one of a group of orphaned children, who were due to enter Israel from Gaza to be hosted for two weeks on Israeli kibbutzim, were prevented from leaving by Hamas.

Diplomatic developments

US envoy George Mitchell is holding meetings with Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Authority officials today, having already met with officials in Egypt and Israel.

Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported this morning that outgoing PM Olmert revealed to Mitchell yesterday the outline of an offer made by Israel in negotiations he and Foreign Minister Livni conducted with the Palestinians as part of the Annapolis process. The offer reportedly included the withdrawal of 60,000 West Bank settlers, a contiguous Palestinian state including east Jerusalem and international custodianship over the holy sites in the Old City. The paper speculates that Olmert wishes to leave a mark which binds his successor to respond to these proposals with the US administration. Olmert has already made public his view that Israel must withdraw from most of the West Bank as part of a final status agreement.

For his part, Mitchell is said to have referred to President Bush’s 2004 letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in which the president made clear that the US supported the “return” of Palestinian refugees and their descendants only to a future Palestinian state, and a border arrangement that would take into account existing settlement blocs as part of an agreed solution. President Obama is understood to favour the renewal of diplomatic talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority immediately following the elections in Israel.

Speaking publicly after the meeting, Mitchell stressed the importance of consolidating the ceasefire, “including a cessation of hostilities, an end to smuggling and re-opening of the crossings based on 2005 agreements.” Olmert indicated that Israel would be willing to see the border crossings opened as part of a ceasefire, but only if a deal were to include the return of Gilad Shalit. Israel has shown willingness to release a large number of prisoners in return for Shalit, but Hamas wish to decouple the prisoner issue from that of the borders. Their leadership in Damascus joined with other extremist groups in issuing a statement yesterday in which they rejected “the signing of a truce agreement before the opening of all crossing points, the lifting of the blockade and the arrival of supplies.”

Though Israeli and Egyptian officials are hinting that a deal could be close, and that Egypt wishes to see an agreement declared by 5 February, it is not yet clear if a deal will transpire.

Arab discourse

Commentators in the Arab world are condemning Hamas in increasingly strong terms. In an interview aired on Arabic Al-Jazeera TV on 27 January 2009, Egyptian journalist Nabil Sharaf Al-Din ridiculed Hamas’s claims of victory, saying: “If victory means one dead Israeli for every 100 dead Palestinians, the destruction of 40,000 homes, the utter destruction of the infrastructure of the wretched, besieged Gaza Strip, and having to watch these gruesome images on TV day and night – we do not want such a victory.” He added: “We do not need any more such victories. Whoever enters a war without properly assessing his position is a criminal. If Hamas knew anything about politics… But unfortunately, they understand politics like I understand Chinese.”

A report in today’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper quotes Arab journalist and commentator for the New York Times, Yousef Ibrahim, in a letter addressed to the Palestinian people, saying: “There are those who sit on their padded armchairs in Damascus and in Beirut (reference to Khaled Meshaal and Ramadan Shalah of Islamic Jihad-SP) who boast of the ‘divine victory’ that never was, and interfere with reaching a truce.” He continued: “Look around you my Palestinian brothers, Jordan and Egypt have a common border with Israel, and they signed a peace agreement with it and do not intend to go to war with it because of you… In contrast, the problematic Syria continues to feed your fantasies that one day, perhaps, it will join you. Of course Syria will be happy to fight… down to the last Palestinian.”

Criticism of Hamas has come strongest of all from other Palestinians. Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee Yasser Abd Rabbo said on Al Jazeera on 22 January: “Hamas gangs are unleashed like packs of animals on the streets of Gaza against Fatah members. Because the military bases and the prisons have been destroyed, they have turned Gaza schools, Al-Nasser Hospital, the radiology department at Shifa’ Hospital, the Al-Aqsa University, and other places, including mosques, into centers for the detention, interrogation, and torture of Fatah members and members of other national Palestinian factions…

“Dozens of people have been shot in the leg, have been beaten savagely, and have had their bones broken, because they are members of the Fatah movement, which took to the streets of Gaza to confront the occupation, leaving all disagreements [with Hamas] behind, during the battle against the invasion by the Israeli occupation. This is what is happening today in Gaza.”