Alwaght- Failing last week in Jenin to disarm and neutralize resistance groups whose power gain in the West Bank it finds a threat to its existence, the Israeli regime has now resorted to the traditional trick of ‘divide and rule’ to settle the security challenges posed to it by the Palestinian side.
In the latest development, the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority (PA) reportedly engaged in talks on the flash point city of Jenin. According to an agreement between them, the Israeli military will cease its raids in the camp city to allow the PA security apparatus to regain its control.
The military was initially against the idea, reported Israeli Channel 14, but the political officials ordered the army, Shin Bet, and other related agencies to halt the military activities and preemptive attacks in Jenin. The order came a day after PA President Mahmoud Abbas visited the city. Firing time bombs is exempted from this agreement, reported Israeli sources.
Channel 14 continued that the alternative to the current situation in Jenin is full control over the city and management of the citizens’ life using force and repeated clashes, or full collapse of the PA.
“The option of choice is allowing the PA to fully control the region,” said the Israeli broadcaster.
Though the PA has not reacted to reports about its agreement with Tel Aviv, its services to the Israeli government have a long record. Abbas’s visit to Jenin after 11 years showed that a plot was in the making and serving the Israeli interests.
Abbas’s subservience to Israeli masters
Two weeks ago, the Israeli regime carried out a massive offensive from the ground and air in Jenin north of the West Bank to destroy the resistance groups based in this city. Although the scope of the operation was wide and according to UN reports, more than 800 Palestinian homes were destroyed and dozens of people were killed and many others were injured, the hardline government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to obliterate the resistance groups. Just contrary to the claim of destroying the infrastructure and ammunition storages of the resistance groups, the Israeli military did not achieve much success.
As an act of presence and to purport that he is angry with the Israeli crimes, Abbas vowed to rebuild Jenin and ordered his forces to deploy to the city. But it seems that this was more like a political maneuvering to exonerate himself from the accusation of collusion with Tel Aviv. This is while some sources announced that during the recent offensive, the PA forces also helped the occupation forces in closing the city's gates to block exit of resistance fighters from the city.
One of the driving factors behind Abbas's Jenin visit was the protests that censured PA’s passive stances. That was why Abbas was received coldly in Jenin in a demonstration of discontentment and the body's loss of legitimacy among people.
Abbas's statement in Jenin that "we have one authority, one government, one law, one security and one stability", was an act of flexing his arms against the resistance groups and implementing Tel Aviv's orders. The PA and the Fatah movement have not only remained silent to the crimes of the Israeli regime in Gaza and Jenin, but also now they are increasingly accused of collaborating with the occupation against the new intifada of people.
Assigning Jenin's security to the PA forces comes as the Israeli officials, especially Netanyahu, have expressed concern about the weakening of the Ramallah-based governing body in recent weeks and have said that its collapse should be prevented in any way possible. This supportive stance by the most radical Israeli government in recent years showed that the Israelis consider the weakness of the PA as a threat to the interests of their occupation in the West Bank. Given the fact that the conflict with the resistance groups in the West Bank has a lot of costs for the Israelis, Tel Aviv authorities are trying to use the PA clout to suppress the resistance cells in Jenin.
Countering the fledgling West Bank resistance
The reason why Abbas is sacrificing the Palestinian interests to those of Israeli occupation is that he sees West Bank the sphere of his control and finds any Hamas or Islamic Jihad influence a threat to the shaky pillars of the PA rule.
Resistance groups in the West Bank are mainly supported by the Islamic Jihad and are growing more powerful day by day. But in addition to Islamic Jihad, some sources recently reported, Hamas has also intensified its activities in the West Bank so that with the help of Islamic Jihad, they can arrange small cells in the organizational structures of the resistance.
According to Anadolu news agency, Hamas and its armed wing Ezzeddin Qassam Brigades have claimed responsibility for a number of operations in the West Bank in recent months. For example, it carried out an attack in Huwara town in the West Bank in February in which a number of Israelis were killed and injured. Also, a shooting in Tel Aviv in March and Ramallah attack that killed four Israelis were linked to Hamas. Recently, Ayash Brigade, a militant group Tel Aviv believes is tied to Ezzeddin Qassam Brigades published a video of Qassam 1 rockets being fired at Israeli settlement of Shaked. These actions have sett off the alarm bells to Tel Aviv that in addition to the Islamic Jihad, it has to deal with Hamas, too, in the West Bank.
Hamas leaders have many times said that they stand by the resistance groups of the West Bank and will support them with all their might, and the arming of these groups is done with the help of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Analysts believe that the start of military operations arranged by Hamas in the West Bank will change the policy pursued by the Israeli government against Hamas and its leaders in the West Bank and beyond, and may trigger a new war in Gaza. This is while the Israeli army is not in a position to engage into a new conflict with Gaza, something Israeli officials admit.
Israeli regime has launched many operations aimed at blocking Hamas influence in the West Bank, but its measures backfired. Since Tel Aviv and the PA have common interests in countering Hamas, the Israelis are seeking to check Hamas using Abbas.
In recent years, the PA has repeatedly handed over Hamas members in the West Bank to the Israelis in order to prevent Gaza-based groups from gaining power in the area under its control, and this time it is trying to serve its Israeli masters in Jenin.
The main driver behind Israeli operations in Jenin and other areas of the West Bank is to prevent the city from turning into a second Gaza. They know very well that if a new front is opened, they will be the target of Palestinian attacks from both sides, and the security of the settlers will be jeopardized more than ever.
Actually, Hamas infiltration of the West Bank has been a source of Abbas's panic. In a private discussion, according to the Israeli sources, Abbas voiced his concern about possible power gain of Hamas in the city or even its control. Therefore, Abbas-Netanyahu shows that Jenin visit was largely demonstrative and the return of the PA security forces to Jenin comes under the cover of reconstruction to watch Hamas moves.
On the other hand, the PA depends on Israeli finances to run the West Bank, and since Netanyahu government cut its aids, it is in dire straits. So, with new agreement with Tel Aviv, the PA leaders are seeking to settle their financial problems. In this connection, some Israeli outlets reported that under the American pressures and with the increasing PA grip over northern West Bank, Netanyahu's cabinet plans to provide civil and economic aids to the body.
While working with the Israelis, Abbas ostensibly interacts with the resistance groups and has invited the heads of Palestinian groups to attend a Cairo summit set for July 30. Hamas has not yet reacted to the invitation but Islamic Jihad’s deputy head Mohammed al-Hindi said the group will attend.
Abbas’s invitation comes while past experiences suggest he is unreliable. In the agreements made last year between the resistance groups in Gaza and the PA in Algeria, all groups were supposed to unite against the Israeli regime, but Abbas is taking a step towards betraying the Palestinian cause, and this time, if he makes commitments to the resistance groups, he will not adhere to them in practice either.
The PA betrayals in the West Bank and countering influence of the resistance groups there brings about nothing but public fury and hatred, since the Palestinians have come to the notion that compromises to the occupiers is of no avail and resistance is the best choice to liberate the usurped lands, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s victories over the Israeli regime over the past decade vindicate this reality.
