http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/24/EDGONP1JNA1.DTL
IN THE GAZA Strip last week, Hamas fighters grinned and preened as they drove around in new Jeep Cherokees seized from Fatah leaders in their successful coup. Hamas is now in undisputed control of Gaza, but calling that a pyrrhic victory may be too generous.
While President Bush and other Western leaders stumble over each other as they scramble to embrace Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader, the leaders of Hamas are locked away in their new Gaza kingdom. Within days, tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid will begin sluicing into Fatah bank accounts — while little more than emergency assistance trickles into Gaza. Israel is still debating whether to resume deliveries of gasoline. The Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, said it best early last week: “‘The Palestinians have come close to putting, by themselves, the last nail in the coffin of the Palestinian cause.” That’s a time-worn truism about the Palestinians, but the way events developed through the week, it seemed to fit Hamas best.
I know the leaders of Hamas. And I am certain they will be the last people on earth to realize that their coup has backfired. During three decades in daily journalism, working in more than 50 nations around the world, I have never met as determined a group of dogmatic ideologues. During a reporting trip in Gaza a few years ago, I set out to meet and interview each of the five major Hamas leaders. I got to four of them. This was before the elections last year that put Hamas in power — before, even, the Israeli air strikes that killed several of them.
For me, the most memorable of this group was Mahmoud al-Zahar, a surgeon. He served as the Hamas foreign minister until Abbas dismissed the government last week.
Zahar lived in a large, comfortable house amid the teeming slums of Gaza. He greeted me at his front door wearing a caftan, a full black beard and a confident smile, then led me to his cavernous living room, where he served sweet tea. Two of his seven children were playing pingpong on a table set up in the middle of the floor. On a credenza, two televisions competed for attention — one offered Al Jazeera, the other CNN. Zahar sat on a faux Louis XIV settee. The butt of a pistol peeked out from between the cushions. After some polite chatter, Zahar espoused the Hamas philosophy.
“From our ideological point of view,” he said, “it is not allowed to recognize that Israel controls one square meter of historic Palestine,” he said. That, of course, includes Israel. After the Arabs retake “historic Palestine,” Zahar continued, the 4 million Palestinians who live in other states would be encouraged to return. They would retake the homes their grandparents lost during the 1948 war. Then, he allowed, “the Jews could remain living in an Islamic state with Islamic law.”
Zahar offered this with a polite smile. His manner was cheerful, even serene. He could have been discussing his opinion of a movie he saw last week. From a few yards away, we could hear the plink of the pingpong ball and his children’s giggles.
Later that afternoon, one of his colleagues, Ismail Abu Shanab, said he had an even better idea, described in the same earnest, genial manner: “There are a lot of open areas in the United States that could absorb the Jews.” When I asked him if he were joking, he looked puzzled and shook his head slightly, as if to say: I don’t understand. Israel killed Shanab, an engineer, along with several other Hamas leaders in 2003. Among them was Abdel Aziz Rantisi who told me, “We in Hamas believe peace talks will do no good. We do not believe we can live with the enemy.”
Five years have passed since those interviews. Last year, Hamas waged a political campaign and won an election. Its leaders took control of the Palestinian parliament.
The movement had a chance to become a player, influence the debate, work in the open to achieve at least some of its goals. How many extremist groups are given the opportunity to step out of the shadows and take the seats of power?
The Hamas legislators ruled in the august Palestinian parliament chamber for 16 months. During that time, they passed no new laws, made no significant proposals — did nothing but object, obstruct and complain. But is anyone surprised?
Hamas is an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. For Hamas’ nihilist leaders, resistance is not a strategy toward an end. Carnage is the goal. Last week, Zahar suggested that Hamas might attack Fatah in the West Bank with suicide bombs.
More than a year in power has changed them not at all. They have proved themselves incapable of looking beyond their dogma.
Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times.
