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The second week of
August, Cairo played a host for top secret meetings between Hamas groups
headed by Khaled Misha'l and Mr. Omar Suleiman , the head of the
Egyptian intelligence.
Authoritative
sources in Cairo confirmed ( as reported later in Al-Ahram newspaper)
that an agreement has been reached between the two parties by which
Hamas will refrain from any future violent activities, including the
launching of the Palestinian Qassam missiles against Israeli
settlements, should Israel honor its impending plan of withdrawal from
the Gaza sector.
There is no reason
to believe that such an agreement was a hoax when we realize that no
missiles have been launched against Israeli targets since the meeting
was concluded. Hamas even consented to allow General Musa Arafat to
station his Egyptian trained forces on the northern part of Gaza,
neighboring Israel, so as to do his job in preventing any Palestinian
infiltrators from initiating any attacks against Israel proper and to
prevent the Qassam missiles from being launched against the Zionist
state. Needless to mention here that Mr. Arafat discreetly blessed the
agreement hoping to get rewarded by Israel to lift the siege off his
quarters, in the least, and may be retrieve his leadership stature by
future meetings with both Sharon and the American president.
The confusing
aspect of this shady agreement is the Palestinian leadership reaction
when it stated that it was a successful step toward achieving peace
through the "Road Map". Sharon's main condition for his "unilateral"
plan of withdrawal from Gaza was to get commitments from Hamas to
refrain from any violent activities against Israel and he finally got
that. Let us not forget here that Gaza represent the main sector where
most armed struggle activities emanate. By ceasing such activities from
Gaza most of the armed liberation activities in the entire occupied
territories will be immeasurably curtailed. Keeping Gaza quiet on the
liberation front would allow Sharon to concentrate his full force to
rampage through the West Bank building more settlements and stealing
more of the Palestinian lands rendering the "Road Map" another mirage in
the sequence of peace failures.
Would somebody
from Hamas or the Palestinian leadership unravel the mystery of success
of such an agreement when the outcome is so crystal clear? Will this
agreement eradicate the racist Israeli wall that swallowed half of the
West Bank? Will this agreement help our people in liberating the
occupied territories and how?
It's really a
shame how our leadership lost sight of the strategic goal of actuating
the national aspiration of the legitimate rights of our people. It's
just as disgusting to see Arab regimes participate in these grotesque
plans of ending our struggle for liberation. We call upon our People and
valiant armed forces to desist from helping the enemy of achieving his
objectives which are tantamount to the demise of our national goals.