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Mahmoud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, talks during a meeting in Cairo, Egypt, Monday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 14, 2006 |
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The United States and Israel are considering a campaign to starve the Palestinian Authority of cash so Palestinians would grow disillusioned with their incoming militant Hamas rulers and return ousted Fatah moderates to power, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper, which quoted unidentified U.S. and Israeli sources, said this approach was being discussed at the highest levels of the U.S. State Department and the Israeli government. The ultimatum to Hamas will be either to recognize Israel's right to exist, abandon violence and accept previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements, or risk isolation and eventual collapse, the newspaper said.
Hamas swept Jan. 25 Palestinian elections on the strength of public dissatisfaction with Fatah's failure to eradicate lawlessness and corruption. It has repeatedly rejected Western demands to change its violent ways.
The strategy to withhold aid is not new. Since Hamas' electoral victory, the West has been threatening to withhold nearly $1 billion in annual aid to the Palestinians, though Russia's recent invitation to Hamas to visit Moscow, and France's support for the Russian approach, have cracked the united front.
Israel has also threatened to cut off monthly transfers to the Palestinians of about $50 million from taxes and customs it collects for them, once Hamas takes power. The new Palestinian parliament is to convene for its first session on Saturday, and a new Cabinet is expected to be appointed within weeks.
What is new is the strategy to force regime change by impoverishing the Palestinians even further, according to the newspaper report. As the U.S. and Israeli officials see it, Palestinians would grow so miserable that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader, would dissolve parliament and call early elections within months, the New York Times said.
The strategy's risks include the probability that Hamas would try to make up withheld money from the rest of the Muslim world, and from private donors, and that Palestinians would blame the United States and Israel, and not Hamas, for their growing misery, the newspaper said. Hamas has already tried to drum up more money from the Muslim world, but has received commitments so far, and no cash.
Besides the cash squeeze, Israel has other leverage on the Palestinian Authority, including its control of the movement of people and goods between the non-contiguous West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the number of workers allowed into Israel, the newspaper noted.
A leader of the militant Palestinian group vowed Monday not to bow to American threats to cut aid, saying the movement did not need "satanic" U.S. money.
Mahmoud Zahar also addressed Hamas' much-anticipated social and economic agenda, saying the group intended to fight corruption, eliminate the "tourism of nudity" and use education to promote a culture of resistance
But, aware of the political realities in the Palestinian territories, Zahar said Hamas had no intention to force Islam on Palestinians or to settle scores with its rivals.
"Those who built their structure on the basis of the Quran...cannot budge because of promises from America or a dollar from Europe," Zahar told a Cairo conference. "I wish America would cut off its aid. We do not need this satanic money," he said.
"America and Europe tried to dry up the funding of the 'terrorist' Hamas that is spent on the families of the martyrs and the detainees, but it (Hamas) has only increased," he said. Such money comes from almsgiving, he said.
He argued that most of the outside aid money was eaten up by corruption under Fatah and lost funds could be made up by removing corrupt officials and turning to Arab donors.
He ruled out making compromises to keep the money coming.
"Recognizing the state of the Israeli enemy is not on the table," he said. "Our program is to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine," he said.
"The Qassam Brigades will continue to increase in numbers, supplies and weapons...until the liberation is completed," he said of the group's military wing. He added that Hamas can develop the capabilities of its missiles.
"Anyone who thinks the calm means giving in is mistaken. The calm is in preparation for a new round of resistance and victory," he said. "If the enemy has something to offer we will study it, but we will not abide by a truce that is for free."
Venezuela ready to receive Hamas "with pleasure"
Venezuela said Monday it will welcome leaders from the Hamas movement "with pleasure" if they visit the country as part of a South American tour following victory in Palestinian elections.
Asked if the Venezuelan government will receive the Islamic militant group, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters, "Of course we will. What is the problem?"
"If they come, with pleasure," Rangel said. "They've just won an election."
President Hugo Chavez frequently criticizes what he calls U.S. imperialist dominance in world affairs, and has often expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
The leftist leader has said his government will be one of the first to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Rangel said earlier this month that Hamas was expected to visit Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela as part of a regional tour to celebrate its electoral victory. On Monday, he said he didn't know when Hamas would arrive because the visit was not yet confirmed.
The New York-based American Jewish Congress has called on Latin American countries not to welcome Hamas.
"Prematurely granting Hamas an international reception is not pro-Palestinian, or pro-peace," and would endorse its anti-Semitic views, violent tactics and denial of Israel's right to exist, the American Jewish Congress' chairman, Jack Rosen, said in a statement Thursday.
Until it renounces those ideas and actions, "Hamas should remain in the diplomatic deep freeze," he said.
Moscow offered to meet this month with Hamas leaders.
AP contributed to this report.
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