US backing of Fatah enflames new conflict

Heightened factional fighting between rival Palestinian forces Hamas and Fatah comes as Washington announced plans to deliver a further $86.4 million to back President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas officials have denounced Washington's involvement in training and financing Fatah security forces. Spokesman Ismayil Radwan said in a public speech that it was Washington's intention to "fuel a civil war in the Palestinian arena." Mouin Rabbani, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that the United States is seeking to build Abbas's Presidential Guard into the leading Palestinian security force. "It was developed to take on the Executive Force of Hamas," he told IPS. Rabbani said that the United States is preparing for the long haul, rather than trying to spark the clashes that Gaza is immediately experiencing. "This is not a direct instigation by the Americans, because they are not yet convinced that Fatah are ready to take on Hamas," Rabbani said. "But they are beginning to pump significant amounts of weapons, training and funds in the hope that Fatah will prevail in the eventual conflict." For its part, Washington has acknowledged that it is training Abbas's Presidential Guard in urban warfare tactics in the West Bank city Jericho under the guidance of Lt. General Keith Dayton, the US security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In an interview in December, Dayton told the Israeli daily newspaper Yehidot Ahronot: "We are involved in building up the Presidential Guard, instructing it, assisting it to build itself up, and giving them ideas." Dayton denied the Force was being groomed to confront Hamas. In December 2006, Congress passed the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which explicitly denounced the elected Hamas leadership. The Act seeks to bolster the Palestinian National Authority under Fatah's partnership. Under the law, Hamas is sanctioned by the United States until "the Hamas-controlled PA [Palestinian Authority] has made demonstrable progress toward purging from its security services individuals with ties to terrorism, dismantling all terrorist infrastructure, and cooperating with Israel's security services, halting anti-American and anti-Israel incitement, and ensuring democracy and financial transparency." The Islamic fundamentalist movement Hamas ended Fatah's 40-year rule of the Palestinian political scene when it won parliamentary elections in January 2006. A strict US-led sanctions regime was imposed when Hamas formed a government in March. This is, according to the United Nations, the first sanctions regime of its kind imposed on an occupied population. The sanctions regime has worsened the situation in Gaza that was already being described as a humanitarian crisis by UN agencies such as the World Food Program (WFP). At least three-quarters of Gaza's 1.5 million people live in poverty and are threatened with food insecurity. Additionally, more than 220,000 people are absolutely dependent on WFP food assistance. Yet, according to polls, one thing that the sanctions have apparently failed to do is noticeably erode Hamas's popularity.