After Hamas leadership abandoned its "little brother" to bleed alone in the face of Israel's Operation Black Belt last week, a Hamas official last night affirmed the rival Islamic group's status as "brothers-in-arms", hewn from the same stone.
Galei Tzahal Arab affairs commentator Jacky Hugi says the two organizations are expending efforts to project the image of business-as-usual, despite last week's explosive tension between them.
"Hamas stood aside and did not participate in the fire against Israel," Hugi says, "They actually let the Islamic Jihad fend for themselves with the Air Force attacks that were landing on them."
Hugi says Hamas' non-participation in the warfare does not represent mere acquiescence in the attacks, but was stated explicitly in a message from the bureau of the Islamic organization's head Ismail Haniyeh to Jerusalem that "if you don't attack us, we won't attack you." "In other words," explains Hugi, "Hamas told Israel, 'You're free to do the work yourselves; we won't aid the Jihad,' and this is what happened. Both sides, Hamas and the IDF, maintained this understanding throughout the round of violence."
Hamas' betrayal of their Islamic brothers did stoke some antipathy, but the message now is that the groups are brothers, not enemies; also Hamas considers Israel the enemy and Islamic Jihad is only an internal adversary, albeit a bitter and at-times dangerous adversary.
"But even when a military strike against the Jihad is called for, Hamas is unable to commit. Israel in great measure helped them to eliminate a certain problem, this time one that Hamas called Baha abu el Atta, the Islamic Jihad operative who comprised this specific problem.
"For this reason one saw the Hamas official in Qatar Husan Badran address the Palestinian public, also to the Jihad: 'Come let us not be confused; our relations with the Jihad are stable, build on sturdy foundations. We're together in the same pit. Coordination between us [and Israel] is rare.' The Jihad responded in their own way - they didn't directly attack Hamas, they're too busy publicizing their shooting at Israel, showing off their missile stores and their uses."
Hugi concluded by mentioning that the missile fired at Be'er Sheva on Friday by Hamas was intended to mollify the Islamic Jihad.
