Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday lashed out against Hamas, criticizing the Palestinian terror organization for what now appears to have been a deliberate series of escalatory gambits in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which ultimately triggered, respectively, Israels Operation Protective Edge and Operation Brothers Keeper. Though reporting on the two Israeli campaigns has at times been tangled - with analysts and journalists sometimes linking Israeli military calculations in the Gaza Strip to the West Bank kidnappings - regional leaders have tracked the two operations as distinct campaigns, conducted in separate theaters and aimed at securing differing strategic goals. Operation Brothers Keeper was initiated in the West Bank after Hamas terrorists kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers, and had as its goal the erosion of Hamass West Bank terror infrastructure. Almost 100 Hamas operatives were eventually detained in some form, and a massive plot to generate political instability via mass violence was disrupted. Operation Protective Edge was separately initiated in response to an uptick in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and expanded into a ground conflict after Hamas activated its offensive tunnel network. It had as its goal the destruction of Hamass projectile arsenal and underground infrastructure. The 50 days of the hot conflict saw Hamass arsenal depleted by 80 percent and its attack-tunnel network destroyed, before a ceasefire was secured earlier this week on terms broadly considered to be favorable to the Israelis. PA President Mahmoud Abbas took to television on Thursday to blast Hamas for its role in both campaigns. Discussing the West Bank kidnappings, Abbas revealed that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal had personally denied to him that the group had been involved, just days before Hamass Turkey-based West Bank leader Saleh al-Arouri boasted that the organization had indeed carried out the operation. Abbas also criticized Hamas for intransigence in the context of the Gaza conflict, declaring that the PA had worked with the Egyptians to develop ceasefire language just days into the war. Hamas had rejected those terms in the middle of July, and Abbas emphasized that the group ended up accepting functionally the same terms at the end of August. Senior Abbas advisor Mahmoud al-Habbash went even further, calling on Hamas to admit it had lost and recalibrate accordingly. Alluding to a battle described as having involved Muhammads forces in 625, where history has registered that the Muslims were defeated because of the heavy casualties they suffered, Habbash reprimanded Hamas for refusing to acknowledge its losses.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 14:35:36 +0000
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