Soccer Dad

Hamas fires on mosque, kills little girl

The New York Times reported on the clash in southern Gaza between Hamas and the "Warriors of God."

Hamas, an Islamist but also Palestinian nationalist movement that took over Gaza two years ago, faces rebellion by some splinter groups accusing it of being too liberal. The Warriors of God referred in its literature to taking inspiration from and having links to Al Qaeda, though it is not clear whether those links are real. What is clear is that it wants Gaza to be more aggressively Islamist and to be part of a worldwide jihad, rather than engaged in a fight for a Muslim Palestinian state.

Hamas makes a point of saying it does not impose strict Islam on others but merely sets an example. There are, nonetheless, Palestinians in Gaza who are more moderate religiously and who oppose Hamas, complaining of creeping theocracy in its rules and laws.

This suggests that there are other groups that object to Hamas. Still it's good to see a report that treats Hamas for what it is, rather than for what the reporter might want Hamas to be.

Whatever the cause of the splintering, Hamas viewed it as an insurrection. The Washington Post reported:

In the meantime, Hamas forces surrounded the mosque and demanded that Moussa and his supporters surrender, triggering a gunfight.

By late evening, the fighting had ebbed, but police in the Rafah area said they were still searching for Moussa and fighters who had escaped from the mosque. Those killed included a senior Hamas police commander, officials said.

"We dealt with them as an illegal group having guns and weapons, and we are telling anyone who is a member to give themselves up," said Taher al-Nouno, a spokesman for Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister in the Hamas government.

The Post also includes an analysis.

"Hamas was hesitant to take steps against those guys until now. They shot at us several times from within the Gaza Strip, and Hamas closed their eyes. They thought they could handle it or even get benefit out of it," Kuperwasser said. "That was a mistake."

Anat Kurz, a specialist on Palestinian politics at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, said the uprising against Hamas could deepen the contrast developing between Gaza and the West Bank, where the more moderate Palestinian Authority is assuming greater control over local security and seeing the beginnings of an economic upturn.

The division in Palestinian society is considered a barrier to any peace agreement with Israel, and it remains unclear when or how Gaza and the West Bank will be brought under a single government. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

People in Gaza "see some kind of normal life back in Ramallah and Jenin, and they are asking questions," Kurz said. "Some are drifting to the fringes, and others are pressing Hamas to do something that would give a reason for all this suffering."

Unfortunately the end of the analysis includes this:

Yousef said that the battle at the mosque showed that Hamas remains strong and that little further opposition was expected from a handful of fundamentalist groups active in Gaza, which he said have minimal support.

If anything, he said, Hamas's willingness to confront organizations influenced by al-Qaeda should make U.S. and other Western powers more open to engagement.

The United States regards Hamas as a terrorist organization, and Israel mounted a military assault against the group in December in response to thousands of mortar shells and rockets launched in recent years from Gaza into Israeli territory.

"We are a liberation movement with an Islamist hue," Yousef said, but "we are not the Taliban or al-Qaeda. We like law and order."

It's proper that the reporter included the reason for Israel's war against Hamas. Still he gave a Hamas spokesman a platform to plead for Western support.
Media Backspin, JudeoPundit, Israelly Cool and Elder of Ziyon have more commentary.