Washington Report On Middle East Affairs – October 2018

WAGING PEACE

Does Hamas Now Have the Upper

Hand Over Israel and the PA?

The Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) pro-

vided an update Aug. 23 on the dire humani-

tarian conditions in Gaza and the besieged

enclave’s future amid U.S. funding cuts and

political maneuverings in the region.

ACW executive director Khalil Jahshan

updated the audience on recent Egyptian

and U.N. diplomatic efforts to end the con-

flict between Israel and Hamas.

“Even some Israeli experts the past few

weeks have been admitting that Hamas

has achieved a knock-out victory in the PR

war regarding Gaza,” Jahshan told the au-

dience. The Israeli military assault on civil-

ians during the March of Return garnered

domestic and international outrage, he

pointed out, and both sides are “emotionally

and physically exhausted” over the situa-

tion, “despite the non-symmetrical nature of

the confrontation,” he said.

The July mediation efforts in Cairo re-

sulted in a plan which, among other issues,

proposed a short-term cease-fire in Gaza

between Hamas and Israel, relieving the

humanitarian crisis through the re-opening

of border crossings, removal of restrictions

on what Israel called “prohibited goods”

(particularly medical and humanitarian

items and fuel) and re-extending the fishing

zone for Gazans, he explained.

Jahshan lamented, however, that while

the Palestinians and Israelis were talking

via the Egyptians, they still were not com-

municating directly with each other.

Among the difficulties, he said, is that

each side has conditions. For example,

“Hamas refuses for appearance’s sake to

link a potential cease-fire agreement with

promised economic assistance to Gaza,”

he noted. “They want to treat both of these

separately because in the eyes of their con-

stituents they feel as if they are violating

their political platform.”

The Egyptians, Jahshan noted, want to

retain control not only of the process, but

also the outcome, particularly with respect

to the revitalization of Gaza’s economy. Is-

rael’s conditions include an enforced cease-

fire and return of its prisoners.

“I believe Hamas emerged the last three

weeks as the winner of this diplomatic en-

counter,” Jahshan asserted. The organiza-

tion has managed to send the message

that political gains can be achieved through

military resistance, he noted—the opposite

message of the Palestinian Authority lead-

ership in Ramallah.

“Hamas succeeded in focusing world at-

tention, including Arab attention, on Gaza's

miserable economic conditions that have

been ignored,” Jahshan stated. “Now funds

are being earmarked for them.” Some $650

million, mostly from Qatar, has been pledged

to help Gaza’s economy.

“Hamas succeeded in shifting the balance

of power from Ramallah to Gaza,” he con-

cluded. “Fatah and [Palestinian Authority

President Mahmoud] Abbas are totally mar-

ginalized.” According to Jahshan, even the

White House would welcome an agreement

between Hamas and Israel through Egypt-

ian mediation, further marginalizing Ramal-

lah in the inevitable future peace talks.

Sean Carroll, president and CEO of Amer-

ican Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), pro-

vided an update on the humanitarian situa-

tion in Gaza, based on his summer trip to the

besieged Strip. He found the two million res-

idents of the beleaguered 140-square-mile

enclave in critical need of basic services, in-

cluding fuel and medical supplies, which are

rapidly decreasing. Unemployment is at an

estimated 57 to 60 percent, and even higher

for the large youth population.

“Gaza is on the brink of real catastrophe,”

Carroll reported. Under Israel’s strict block-

ade for the past 11 years, residents have

electricity only four hours a day. Drinkable

water—which is expensive—is contami-

nated, while 102 million liters of untreated

sewage water flow into the sea each day,

he said. Frustrated Gazans in need of med-

ical treatment in Israel have all but given up

applying for permits to cross the Israeli-con-

trolled border crossing.

Carroll lamented the deaths of 172

Gazans by Israeli soldiers during the Great

March of Return that began March 30.

More than 8,000 demonstraters were hos-

pitalized this year, with about half having

been shot with live ammunition.

Carroll considers ANERA’s ongoing pro-

jects as still a bright spot amid the suffering.

He described the group’s $100 million

Palestinian community infrastructure devel-

opment project from USAID, which is now

threatened by a funding freeze. “We have

connected over 100,000 households to ac-

cessablewater,” he stated. “We’ve bene-

fited 340,000 people in the course of this

project over the last five years.”

In addition to responding to the humani-

tarian crisis, ANERA is striving to build sus-

tainable schools and clinics, working in the

60 WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2018

Khalil Jahshan (l) and Sean Carroll conduct a briefing at the Arab Center Washington DC on

the political and humanitarian situation in Gaza.

STAFF PHOTO PHIL PASQUINI

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