"Israel will not extract a tahadiyeh [cease-fire] from Hamas from a position of victory," Mushir al-Masri, the secretary general of the Palestinian parliament’s Hamas faction, asserted on Monday. His statement, issued following the report of the killing of an entire Palestinian family this week, apparently by Israel Defense Forces missiles, was intended to make it clear that the situation was a matter of a duel between equals in status, if not equals in capability. The rockets that were fired into Israel afterward were intended to prove that point. They were also intended to set the tone for the talks held in Egypt the following day, between Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and the different Palestinian factions. …
Masri belongs to the young generation of Hamas’ leadership. … During the talks about the cease-fire it emerged that Hamas’ "young guard" speaks in one voice, but with different tones. The differences in tone were discernible last September, when Razi Hamad, then the Hamas spokesman, published an article in which he called for conciliation between all the Palestinian factions and offered some barbed criticism of Hamas policy. …
This outcry, which was published in all the Palestinian and Arab media, is considered an important turning point in Hamas’ relations with Fatah. True, Hamad, an educated man who is fluent in both Hebrew and English, and was a journalist for many years, was removed from his post, but he continues to promote national reconciliation and has been involved in the decision-making process concerning the cease-fire.
According to Hamas sources, the differences between Masri, Abu Zohari and Hamad in Gaza, or between Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar, are not ideological but practical. When Hamas tries to present itself as an alternative to Fatah, and when it seeks to settle military accounts with Israel, Hamad’s soft approach is not useful. On the other hand, it turns out that Zahar’s tough stance also failed: When he left Cairo last week on his way to Damascus, to report on his talks with Suleiman to his boss, political chief Khaled Meshal, he no longer insisted on a cease-fire that would include the West Bank, but made do with "Gaza first." Access the full article>>