Defiant Hamas draws up Palestinian cabinet list

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas put the final touches on a new
Palestinian cabinet on Friday as its leader abroad said the
Islamic militant group was prepared for all out war with Israel
if the Jewish state opted for conflict.

More moderate factions, including President Mahmoud Abbas’s
Fatah movement, refused to join a Hamas government.

Hamas said it would complete its cabinet line-up on
Saturday before giving the list to Abbas, who was unable to
convince the surprise winner of the January 25 election to
accept past interim peace deals with Israel.

Hamas’s inability to win over more moderate factions could
make it harder to rule and could also bolster efforts by Israel
and the United States to isolate the new government.

Hamas’s leader-in-exile, Khaled Meshaal, said running the
Palestinian Authority was not its ultimate goal.

“We and the Zionists have a date with destiny. If they want
a fight, we are ready for it. If they want a war, we are the
sons of war. If they want a struggle, we are for it to the
end,” Meshaal declared in Damascus.

Hamas is sworn to Israel’s destruction and has not met any
demands from Israel or the “Quartet” group of Middle East
mediators to recognize the Jewish state, renounce violence and
accept past agreements, conditions for international aid.

The U.S. envoy to the Quartet, which also includes the
European Union, Russia and the United Nations, said on Friday
that Hamas had not given any sign it was ready to shift policy.

“To this date, I have not seen a positive Hamas reaction in
respect of any of these principles,” David Welch told Reuters.

Hamas says Israel, as an occupying power, must take the
first step and recognize Palestinian rights.

In northern Gaza, two Palestinians died and three were
wounded when a rocket they were trying to launch into Israel
exploded, Palestinian security sources said.

A 14-year-old girl was killed by gunfire in the northern
West Bank as Israeli troops surrounded a house in a village
near the town of Jenin, local medics said.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that there was military
activity in the area but gave no further details.

Aid agencies fear the West Bank and Gaza will slip into
economic depression and chaos if donors cut aid and Israel
tightens restrictions after a Hamas-led government is in place.

Hundreds of Palestinians lined up outside bakeries in Gaza
on Friday to buy bread as shop owners said they were running
out of flour due to Israel’s closure of a crossing into the
strip.

To avert the collapse of the Palestinian economy and avoid
dealing directly with Hamas, donor countries were looking into
the possibility of paying salaries direct to 140,000
Palestinian Authority employees, Western diplomats said.

Hamas defeated Abbas’s long-dominant Fatah on a platform of
cleaning up Palestinian government and not giving up its armed
struggle for statehood.

Officials said coalition talks foundered partly because
Hamas rebuffed demands by Fatah and others to abide by interim
peace deals with Israel. The Jewish state refuses to negotiate
with Hamas and has cut tax transfers to the Palestinians.

Fatah officials said the faction’s ruling Central Committee
decided late on Thursday not to join a Hamas government.

HAMAS TAKING TOP PORTFOLIOS

Hamas’s choice for foreign minister will be Mahmoud
al-Zahar, a top leader in Gaza whom Israel has tried to
assassinate, Hamas sources said.

Another Hamas leader, Saeed Seyam, would become interior
minister, giving him control over three Palestinian security
agencies, the sources added.

Abbas will later present the cabinet list for a confidence
vote to parliament, where Hamas has an outright majority.

In Damascus, Meshaal took a swipe at Fatah for its interim
peace deals with Israel in the 1990s.

He also upheld the right of Palestinian refugees and their
descendants to return to the homes they lost in the 1948 war —
a red-button issue that has bedeviled past peace negotiations.

“I tell all the Palestinians: you will return to your
homeland and nobody will stop you,” he said.

Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against
Israelis since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000 but has
largely adhered to a ceasefire forged a year ago. It has said
talks with Israel would be a waste of time.

(Additional reporting by Rasha Elass in Damascus, Mark John
in Brussels and Adam Entous and Wafa Amr in Jerusalem, Wael
al-Ahmed in Jenin)