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<font size=3>Prime Minister Haniya: stop blood shed and do not play into
the hands of external forces <br><br>
<a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1249" eudora="autourl">
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1249<br>
</a>Kristen Ess <br>
Wednesday, 20 December 2006 <br><br>
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya addressed the public Tuesday night,
stressing the need to “maintain unity at home and abroad.” He said that
national dialogue is the “master of the situation” and that “we must not
resort to arms.” The Prime Minister urged all factions to exercise
restraint and calm, and to help “ease tension and resentment we must end
armed rallies.” <br><br>
President Abbas says similar things when he addresses the public, as do
most people and leaders, although the calls go largely unheeded because
the underlying issues are most complex, and all the while external forces
are manipulating the situation of a desperate public who, by now, is
having a more difficult time seeing the forest for the trees. <br><br>
Prime Minister Haniya spoke in Gaza City for over an hour and a half last
night, doing what he could with words to decrease the chaos seen in the
streets as members of Fateh and Hamas “turn their resistance weapons
intended for the legitimate and internationally legal resistance to
occupation on each other.” <br><br>
The Prime Minister said that the “focal point that is necessary to
respect is the election results and how to handle them when they come.”
President Abbas of Fateh called for early elections, in part because the
US will not lift the economic and political blockade until Hamas is out
of office, and because talks for a unity government failed as Hamas would
not cede points mandated by some in the international community and Fateh
was doing the external bidding in some regards. And certainly, not least
in the list of “why early elections,” Fateh will be back on top, where it
had been for 10 years. Yasser Abed Rabbo said they needed three months to
prepare themselves. And the first time the elections were to be held in
the summer of 2005, Fateh postponed them and it was largely known they
did this because they were not certain of a victory. And when Hamas was
victorious in January 2006, it looked to journalists covering the scene
around the clock that even Hamas was surprised. But since then the
already devastated situation has gone downhill. <br><br>
Hanyia did take a moment in his speech to convey what is obvious to so
many; that this internal chaos is not limited to internal forces, that
armed fighting amongst Palestinians is not fomented by local Palestinian
factions alone and are in a great many instances, reactionary, and that
the spiral into civil-war like conditions are also the workings of
external forces who have proven themselves, and publicly admitted to
being, enemies of the Palestinians, including Israel, the occupier, and
the United States, the moral and financial supporters of the occupation.
<br><br>
The US called for democracy as if the Palestinian population did not
always hold highly fair, transparent and democratic elections in all
sectors, (see 1996, 2004 and 2006) but the US did not approve of the
democratic choice. Therefore the US imposed an economic and political
blockade. And now the Israeli Prime Minister says he must support
President Abbas. The Israeli Prime Minister has never supported President
Abbas, refusing to meet with him and referring to him as being the “no
negotiating partner” as was the late President Arafat before him. The
Israeli Prime Minister is not about to reach an equal negotiating table,
but many fear what will happen at one, what sort of concessions the
Palestinian Fateh leadership will make. The Israeli Prime Minister's ploy
of support for the “the moderates, including President Abbas” is for the
media. The take-over of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque are ongoing, as are
invasions, incursions, arrests and assassinations. And the Israeli
government stopped paying the taxes it owes and therefore we are unable
to fully pay public sector employees. Many say the tactic is to starve us
until we concede. But if the final concession is to leave our historic
Palestine, that will never happen.” Haniya also spoke to the existence of
many “internal enemies who have their own agenda and a are also sowing
chaos, unrest and distrust.” <br><br>
Hamas has also stressed the need to reform the Palestine Liberation
Organization and pointed out that “there are American pressures exerted
on some figures and forces to not participate in the Palestinian
government, but we have said repeatedly that the door will remain open to
all Palestinian factions wishing to participate in a government that has
lived through the economic siege and political isolation” since the first
moment this government was formed. <br><br>
Accusations of corruption come from both parties, and in both Hamas and
Fateh episodes of nepotism and corruption are easy to find, but the
democratic choice at the polls this year was Hamas, and many of those who
voted for them said at that the time that they did so because they were
looking for a change from the status-quo of corruption in Fateh. But the
Hamas member Prime Minister is still holding out hope for a government of
national unity, as is President Abbas. <br><br>
During Prime Minister Haniya's Gaza City speech he said that “with a
basis of national consensus we can solve any problem, and we will with a
government of national unity be able to face the embargo united.”
<br><br>
He also called for a “return of any abductees taken from among the Hamas
and Fateh members. Give back your brothers if you have taken any
hostages. This is not the way.” <br><br>
The Minster of Interior, Hamas member Said Siyam, is conducting an
emergency meeting with security services in a joint step to contain the
armed rallies. And the first objective for security is to find the
killers of the three children. I do not mind if the security services
join operations.” Hamas' Executive Forces, set-up by Siyam, have been on
one side of the fighting, while the other side is Fateh's Presidential
Guard and Palestinian Authority security branches. <br><br>
The Prime Minister rallied, “I call upon the Palestinian people to reach
a comprehensive national reconciliation everywhere. I was prepared on
behalf of the government that if there was blood shed to pay the
relatives of victims,” at least as some kind of compensation although the
spilling of our own blood with our own hands is unforgivable. <br><br>
Prime Minister Haniya said more Tuesday night, but of import was his
commitment to Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, his
admission that the Qatari Initiative failed due to President Abbas, and
his reminder that he was willing to give up his position as Prime
Minister for the greater good, as he did within moments of the beginning
the discussion of new ministerial appointments in a unity government. The
President rejected the first choice who was a Hamas member, and then
rejected the independent who was chosen next. The Hamas government has
had literally nothing to work with since it won the elections and then
took office, but this not the fault of President Abbas. This falls
squarely in the lap of the United States, more destructive than even the
Israeli occupation has been this year. Prime Minister Haniya and
President Abbas may say similar words during public speeches, (just
reverse the party), but what the Hamas government has undergone since it
took office is unprecedented in impossibility, even under Israeli
occupation.<br><br>
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