Zahhar: ‘The future belongs to Islamists’

Gaza- The coming rise of Islamism in the Arab world will strengthen support for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which will not give up its armed confrontation with Israel, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar said on Monday.

If President Mahmoud Abbas bets on peace talks with zionist israel rather than reconciling his Fatah movement with Hamas, he will lose out, Zahhar said in an interview with Reuters in his Gaza office.

“The changing factors around us are in our favor … they are not in favor either of Fatah’s project or those with whom it cooperates, including the israeli enemy,” he said.

“It all depends on Fatah’s policy now,” Zahhar said. “If Fatah wants the (unity) agreement to be accomplished, we will be ready. If they do not want, then we are sitting here and the future is ours.”

Zahhar said Hamas was not prepared to relinquish the fight against Israel under any circumstances. He denied that Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal, based in Damascus, had endorsed Abbas’s concept of non-violent “popular resistance” against Israel.

“Popular resistance includes both Fatah agenda, which speaks of protests only, and the Hamas position which advocates gathering all means of military armament for the sake of self-defense,” Zahhar said.

He foresaw a rising tide of Islamism in the Arab world which would strengthen the Palestinian cause.

“What is coming in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Libya and currently in Sudan is supportive of the Palestinian cause, not as in the past a strategic supporter of the Israeli occupation,” he said.

“What is coming is a thousand times better than in the past. Therefore we have to invest in these achievements by the Arab street for the sake of achieving the fundamental goals of the Palestinian people, the liberation of land and the return of (refugees),” Zahhar added.

Since their 1979 peace treaty Egypt, along with Jordan, has been israel’s most reliable Arab partner in the Middle East. But the overthrow last February of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in the uprising inspired by popular revolution in Tunisia has created uncertainty over Egypt’s future attitude towards Israel.

No to non-violence

Zahhar is a leading Hamas figure, seen by Fatah as a hardliner, who lost two sons in the fight against zionist israel. He is a senior negotiator in the reconciliation process with Fatah, which has been faltering almost since it was signed.

Zahhar said Egypt, now ending a lengthy election process that will lead to a new constitution, is clearly destined to be ruled by “a sweeping Islamist party and a nationalist party” that will back the Palestinian cause.

The reconciliation agreement with Fatah, signed last May and sealed personally by Abbas and Mashaal last month in Cairo, may suffer if Abbas pursues peace talks with Israel, he warned.

Senior officials of the two sides have held talks in Amman, Jordan, in the past week after more than a year in suspension. “Our doubts are really great, especially after these meetings in Amman,” Zahhar said.

“Imagine that the israeli enemy attacked us today or tomorrow … If we were attacked we would respond by all possible means,” Zahhar said.

If israel launched a military offensive into Gaza, Zahhar said he bet Arab reaction would be stronger than in 2009 when 1,400 Palestinians were killed in israel’s three-week onslaught to stop rocket firing from Gaza into its territories.

“(israel) could use the foggy political situation as the Arab nation still organizes itself … to launch a new aggression against Gaza Strip,” he said.

“They cannot accept that Gaza remains a painful and dangerous thorn in the future of the israeli entity.”