RAFAH, Gaza Strip
(AP) -- The image of Hamas' long-exiled chief triumphantly walking
around the Gaza Strip, flashing victory signs beside Islamic militant
leaders Friday, illustrates how the group's defiance of Israel is
forcing a change in Palestinian politics.
Buoyed
by the rise of fellow Islamists in Egypt, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal
and his allies are confronting Israel with the specter of a change in
the balance of power between the two rival Palestinian factions - Hamas
and the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah.
Mashaal,
56, who left the West Bank as a child and now leads Hamas from the Gulf
state of Qatar, broke into tears Friday as he arrived in the Gaza Strip
for his first-ever visit.
Once on Gazan soil
after crossing the border from Egypt, he prostrated himself in a gesture
of thanks, He then recited a traditional Islamic prayer and kissed the
ground.
Thousands of supporters lined the
streets as Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh drove by,
waving and flashing victory signs.
Mashaal's
visit would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago. He would have
been an easy target for Israel.
Fifteen years ago, Mashaal was nearly
assassinated in Jordan by Israeli agents who squirted a deadly poison in
his ear, narrowly escaping after the U.S. forced Benjamin Netanyahu,
then serving his first term as Israel's prime minister, to provide the
antidote.
On Friday, Mashaal referred to the
assassination attempt by "the foolish Netanyahu," saying, "God was
stronger than him and his conspiracy."
But a
Nov. 21 cease-fire agreement, negotiated by Egypt, has forced Israel to
leave Hamas leaders alone and negotiate, albeit indirectly, with the
Islamic militant group sworn to its destruction.
It
appears unlikely that Hamas would ever agree to sit down for peace
talks with Israel. The U.S. and European Union have joined Israel in
listing Hamas as a terror organization because of its history of attacks
aimed at civilians, including suicide bombings inside buses,
restaurants and other public places.
But with Israel's relations at an all-time low with Abbas, the Jewish state might be faced with a tough choice.
Peace
talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, frozen since 2008,
seem to have collapsed altogether.
Abbas's recent success at the UN,
where he won recognition of a de facto state, angered the Israeli
government, which insists Palestinian statehood should be reached
through a peace agreement and talks.
Mashaal's visit came just two weeks ago after the bloodiest round of Israel-Gaza violence in four years.
Hamas
perceives it came out on top in the fighting because it managed to hold
its own despite heavy Israeli airstrikes. It succeeded in maintaining
an almost constant barrage of rocket attacks on Israeli cities, with
some exploding in the Jewish heartland for the first time near Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv. Millions of Israelis were in range of the Palestinian
attacks.
Eight days of fighting ended with an
Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that stipulated Israel would stop targeting
militants. That, along with unprecedented support from Egypt, allowed
Mashaal to make the visit without fear.
As a
result of that truce, Israel, which officially shuns Hamas as a
terrorist group because of suicide bombings and other attacks against
civilians, is now conducting indirect talks with Hamas through Egypt.
In
a sign of how touchy Israel is on the issue, Danny Danon, a lawmaker
from Netanyahu's Likud party, denied that indirect talks were taking
place.
"We speak with Hamas in the only language they understand which is weapons," Danon said.
"Gaza
is heating up as a greenhouse for terrorism and I have no doubt that
Mashaal did not come to promote peace but rather to promote violence
against Israel," he said.
Hamas has received a
boost from the rise of its parent movement, the fundamentalist Muslim
Brotherhood, following Arab Spring revolts - especially in Egypt.
Deposed
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak barely tolerated Hamas. He cooperated
with Israel on a blockade of Gaza after 2007, when Hamas seized control
of the territory in bloody street battles from Abbas' Fatah faction.
Since then Palestinians have been split, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Fatah ruling parts of the West Bank.
Israel,
which is reluctantly coming to terms with the recent shifting
Palestinian power balance, mostly kept silent on Mashaal's 48-hour visit
to Gaza. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israel did not differentiate
among various Hamas leaders. "Hamas is Hamas is Hamas," said the
spokesman, Yigal Palmor.
Thousands of masked
Hamas militants deployed throughout Gaza to protect Mashaal's convoy,
with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and anti-aircraft
weaponry in tow.
During Friday's visit, which
was timed for the 25th anniversary of Hamas' founding, Mashaal also paid
homage at the house of the group's spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who
was paralyzed in a childhood accident and killed by a missile fired from
an Israeli helicopter on March 22, 2004.
The
assassination came at a time of heavy Israeli-Palestinian fighting, with
Israeli military operations against Palestinians militants and a wave
of Hamas suicide bombings in Israel.
"The
resistance was launched from this humble house, Yassin the giant of
Jihad operated from here. We pledge to continue his path," Mashaal said.
---
Deitch reported from Jerusalem.
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