Writing in the August 7th edition of the semi-weekly Hamas newspaper Al-Risala, columnist Ibrahim Abu Heija opines that, of all the outcomes of the Hizbullah war against Israel, "the greatest beneficiary will ultimately be the Palestinian resistance...."
Abu Heija feels that Israel lost the Lebanon campaign, with a concomitant "collapse of the Israeli defense doctrine" and "the confirmation of the decline in its deterrent capability...."
Under the title "Victory in Lebanon - Towards a Third Intifada", Abu Heija writes (as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute):
In terms of the internal PA debate about how best to confront Israel, Abu Heija explained, "The victory in Lebanon will weaken those Palestinian voices that are heard from time to time, sometimes calling for making concessions, at other times calling for fortuitous ceasefires. Hamas will be given a significant margin to gain legitimacy for carrying out [armed] resistance on various fronts...."
Furthermore, according to the Al-Risala columnist's analysis, Israeli defeats lead to Israeli withdrawals, which are encouragement for further Arab attacks. In Abu Heija's formulation:
Ominously, at a rally in Ramallah on August 1st organized by the Fatah faction, Hani Al-Hassan, a former PA minister, warned the crowd that Israel would soon attack in Judea and Samaria. "I know what I am talking about," he said.
According to a senior Jenin-based terrorist quoted in an August 3rd report by WorldNetDaily.com,
In the past, PA officials expressed admiration for, and a desire to emulate, Hizbullah in the period following the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and at the start of the PA's lengthy terrorist campaign that same year. As quoted in the May 28, 2000 edition of the PA newspaper Al-Ayyam, then-PA treasury advisor Muhammad Zuhdi Al-Nashashibi said that the Israeli withdrawal is "a lesson for whoever wants to win in Palestine like [Hizbullah has won] in Lebanon."
Similarly, the late Feisal Husseini, Jerusalem Affairs officer for the PA, declared to a gathering of Arab lawyers in Beirut in March 2001, "Blessed be the resistance [Hizbullah], which gave us the hope that the future is in our hands. The Lebanese victory is the greatest and most important example of the reality in which the Israeli enemy is living." (As-Safir, Beirut, March 21, 2001, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.)
Abu Heija feels that Israel lost the Lebanon campaign, with a concomitant "collapse of the Israeli defense doctrine" and "the confirmation of the decline in its deterrent capability...."
Under the title "Victory in Lebanon - Towards a Third Intifada", Abu Heija writes (as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute):
This is an important moment, that the Palestinian resistance must seize. It benefited from [a similar moment] at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa [Intifada], when the West Bank and Gaza spoke the Lebanese language, after they had long been immersed in American and Israeli illusions. And following [the Al-Aqsa Intifada], the incomplete [Israeli] withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was carried out.
And now, after the ceasefire [hudna] has been tried and the experience of changing the [Palestinian] Authority reached its peak, the door will be opened for a third Palestinian intifada, that will transform the resistance from the stage of reaction [to Israeli] actions to [resistance] that is carried out at our initiative.
In terms of the internal PA debate about how best to confront Israel, Abu Heija explained, "The victory in Lebanon will weaken those Palestinian voices that are heard from time to time, sometimes calling for making concessions, at other times calling for fortuitous ceasefires. Hamas will be given a significant margin to gain legitimacy for carrying out [armed] resistance on various fronts...."
Furthermore, according to the Al-Risala columnist's analysis, Israeli defeats lead to Israeli withdrawals, which are encouragement for further Arab attacks. In Abu Heija's formulation:
The Israeli defeat in Lebanon will force Israel to move towards partial withdrawals from the Shab'a Farms, the West Bank, and perhaps the Golan Heights, in order to diminish the effects of its defeat - but this will in no way deceive the Palestinians, the Syrians, or the Lebanese. Rather, it will push them all to make yet another move towards achieving their rights.
Ominously, at a rally in Ramallah on August 1st organized by the Fatah faction, Hani Al-Hassan, a former PA minister, warned the crowd that Israel would soon attack in Judea and Samaria. "I know what I am talking about," he said.
According to a senior Jenin-based terrorist quoted in an August 3rd report by WorldNetDaily.com,
We won the war of Lebanon when [then-Prime Minister Ehud] Barak ran away in the night by withdrawing from Lebanon [in 2000]. We won the first Intifada [launched against Israelis in 1987] when [Prime Minister Yitzchak] Rabin called on [Yasser] Arafat to negotiate the 1993 Oslo Accords only in order to stop the Intifada. The Gaza withdrawal is the first result of our second Intifada [launched in 2000] and we see that Olmert still speaks of a second disengagement from the West Bank, and now Israel is under rocket attack. This is a great period and, I believe, a new era.
In the past, PA officials expressed admiration for, and a desire to emulate, Hizbullah in the period following the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and at the start of the PA's lengthy terrorist campaign that same year. As quoted in the May 28, 2000 edition of the PA newspaper Al-Ayyam, then-PA treasury advisor Muhammad Zuhdi Al-Nashashibi said that the Israeli withdrawal is "a lesson for whoever wants to win in Palestine like [Hizbullah has won] in Lebanon."
Similarly, the late Feisal Husseini, Jerusalem Affairs officer for the PA, declared to a gathering of Arab lawyers in Beirut in March 2001, "Blessed be the resistance [Hizbullah], which gave us the hope that the future is in our hands. The Lebanese victory is the greatest and most important example of the reality in which the Israeli enemy is living." (As-Safir, Beirut, March 21, 2001, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.)