PA refuses to condemn tunnel attack
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials have refused to condemn Sunday's tunnel attack near Rafah, saying it was a "legitimate operation" against a military target.
However, some officials in Ramallah admitted that the attack is a serious blow to PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to achieve calm, at least in the period preceding the January 9 election for the chairmanship of the PA.
The PA has in the past condemned suicide bombings through terse statements calling for an end to attacks "on all civilians, whether they are Palestinians or Israelis." Such condemnations, nevertheless, don't apply to cases where IDF soldiers or settlers are targeted.
The PA-controlled media on Monday hailed the perpetrators as "martyrs" and described the attack as a "martyrdom operation against Israeli occupation forces."
Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, who are currently visiting a number of Gulf countries, avoided making any statements on the Rafah attack, which was carried out by a joint Hamas-Fatah cell.
The two, who are opposed to the "militarization" of the intifada, have been trying over the past few weeks to convince Hamas and other opposition groups to accept a hudna (temporary cease-fire) with Israel. But Hamas leaders in the Gaza strip and Syria have refused to comply, insisting that the "resistance" will continue until Israel halts its military operations and pulls back to the 1967 borders.
"It's very difficult for Abu Mazen (Abbas) to condemn an operation like the one in Rafah because it was directed against Israeli soldiers," a senior PA official told The Jerusalem Post. "Most Palestinians support such attacks because they see them as a natural response to Israel's ongoing aggression."
The official noted that Abbas had come under attack for calling for an end to Palestinian terror attacks at the June 4, 2003 Akaba summit in Jordan.
In his speech at the summit, Abbas said: "There will be no military solution for this conflict, so we repeat our renunciation and the renunciation of terrorism against the Israelis wherever they might be. Such methods are inconsistent with our religious and moral traditions and are a dangerous obstacle to the achievement of an independent sovereign state we seek. These methods also conflict with the kinds of state we wish to build based on human rights and the rule of law."
His remarks drew sharp criticism from many Palestinians, including members of his Fatah faction, who accused him of succumbing to Israeli and American pressure to draw a link between the intifada and terrorism.
"Abu Mazen does not want to repeat the same mistake he made at the Akaba summit, especially not when he's running in the elections," explained a Fatah official. "He knows that if he will pay a heavy price in the presidential election if he condemns attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers."
Other Fatah officials said the Rafah attack was clearly designed to embarrass Abbas. The involvement of a Fatah-linked group in the attack was even more embarrassing for Abbas and the new Palestinian leadership, they pointed out.
One official said he did not rule out the possibility that Iran, Hizbullah or Damascus-based radical Palestinian groups were behind the attack.
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