Israel arrested last week two of the Hamas leadership in Ramallah, the former mayor of al-Birah Jamal a-Tawil and a convicted terrorist Hussein Abu Kwek who spent many years in both Israeli and PA jails.
But the wave of arrests was much larger- it included 12 people and we have to pay attention to the photo of the lady Ruba Asi from Ramallah that wears the red kufia of the Popular Front.
And indeed, according to our sources in Ramallah. Both Abu Kwek and Tawil attended a condolence event, in al-Birah of the Popular Front and this was seen as a rapprochement between the two movements.
If we try to find a common denominator in the gallery of names of the arrests – it has clearly united anti-Muqataa factors – in Jenin the Zakarneh family, the Popular Front and many of them are from east Jerusalem, we assume that they were recruited to Hamas.
As for Hamas, as far as the leadership in Gaza is concerned, they do not care about politics in the West Bank. Their concern is terror. The meeting between them and the Popular Front means coordinating terror activity together. The many recruits from east Jerusalem can give us a clue that terror in Jerusalem was considered by them.
Is it connected to the televised reconciliation between Rajub and Aruri? Indirectly maybe. Both Rajub and Aruri are linked with Qatar. We have to pay attention that Hamas in Gaza gave no comment about this festive event, but Musa Abu Marzuq from Qatar gave his blessing. The same you can say about Fatah. So far, Rajub is alone in his reconciliation, and no other Fatah senior and not the PA formally gave the blessing. So, it is better to define it as a Qatar attempt to penetrate the West Bank.
So, the Hamas-Popular Front, the anti-PA families and the local youth can be understood as another axis that is anti Muqata’a on the basis of it, while the Qatari axis tries to merge with the Muqata’a. While the Moslem Brothers in Qatar are with the merger with the Muqata’a, the Gaza based Hamas is about to topple the Muqata’a through shedding the blood of the Israelis.
The relations between the Popular Front and the PA are very tense because Abu Mazen stopped their budgets in the PLO and hence it triggered a coming closer in Gaza and now apparently in the West bank as well.
פנחס ענברי - מזרח תיכון מסובך במילים פשוטות 