Hamas and Abbas clash over new `security forces' and government appointments

Yesterday, the Hamas government announced the formation of yet another Palestinian `security' force - this one made up of terrorists from the Popular Resistance Committees, al-Aksa, and other wonderful people.

New Palestinian Interior Minister Said Siyam announced the formation of the gruop yesterday, and appointed terorist leader Jamal Abu Samhadana to lead it.

Samhadana was the founder of the so-called `Popular Resistance committee'...and one of the engineers of the murder of those three American security contractors in the Gaza Strip three years ago, as well as being implicated in numerous attacks that claimed Israeli lives. He and the PRC have also been a major source of the Qassam missile attacks out of Gaza into Israel. He's number two on the list of Israel's wanted terrorist fugitives.

Hamas forming an official `security force' out of these particular hardliners and naming someone like Samhadana as `general in charge' is tantamout to a declaration of war by Hamas on Israel. As I said here, Hamas is paying for its aid money from Iran and elsewhere by ramping up the War Against the Jews.

Chairman Abbas immediately understood that not only was it an escalation against Israel but, more importantly to him, a bid to oust Abbas from any control over the Palestinian `security' apparatus. He quickly used his power under Palestinian Law to block formation of the new force and Samhadana's appointment to command.

Needless to say, Hamas was not pleased.

A spokesman for the Hamas-led government said today that Interior Minister Siyam will go ahead with plans to form the new security force, despite Abbas' veto.

"The decision of the Interior Minister conformed with the law … which gives the minister the authority to take the necessary decisions to guarantee security," Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said. "The aim of the decision was to support and strengthen the efforts of the police.."

Sure it was.

For their part,the Israelis quite understand what this means.

"We have old scores to settle with this murderer," Israeli Cabinet minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio. "He has no immunity and we will have to settle this score sooner or later."

"The nomination of this killer to a security post is the final word in cynicism and demonstrates again the new terrorist nature of the Palestinian Authority since Hamas took control," he said.

"Sooner or later we will get our hands on him," added Mr Boim, a former deputy defence minister.

Israeli lawmaker and former intelligence chief Danny Yatom, a member of the Labour party also weighed in.

"Nobody who deals with terror can have immunity by any means, even if he holds a ministerial portfolio in the Hamas government."

The Israelis have even been thinking interms of reoccupying Gaza, in view of the increasing rocket attacks, the defence of homicide bombings as `legitimate resistance' and the intransience of the Hamas government.

"If the price we have to pay becomes unreasonable as a result of increased attacks, then we shall have to take all steps, including occupying the Gaza Strip," Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, head of Israel's southern command, told the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

"It could be anything from a partial occupation of the Gaza Strip to a full occupation," he told Maariv, adding that the plans have been approved by senior officials, including Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.

Now, I think that reoccupying Gaza is unlikely, from a cost benfit and a political standpoint. But wouldn't it be a hoot, after the Israeli government was in such a hurry to force Jews out of their homes in Gaza as a `peace' move?

Perhaps a better move might be a strong miitary response against the Hamas government and its hired killers...and an Israeli cleanup of at least Judea and Samaria, moving the Palestinians over to Gaza proper.

As I've said, the results of the last election show thatthe Israelis have at last abandoned the quaint idea of peace with the so-called Palestinians. The next fable to go will be the idea that they can somehow wall themselves off from the den of rattlers living next door.