Israel Matzav

Some Fatah-affiliated militias are behind the latest wave of rocket attacks on Israel with the hope of prompting Israel to launching a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip that would eventually bring down the new Hamas cabinet, Hamas officials claimed on Sunday.

The officials told The Jerusalem Post that the timing of the recent increase in rocket attacks on Israel - almost immediately after the Hamas cabinet was sworn in - was not coincidental. They also accused some elements in the rival Islamic Jihad organization of working together with Fatah militias in the Gaza Strip.

"Their main goal is to drag Israel into a major confrontation in order to bring down the Hamas administration," a Hamas minister told the Post. He pointed out that Hamas was not involved in the firing of rockets and that the movement would continue to honor the unofficial truce, or tahdiyah, with Israel.

The minister said he did not rule out the possibility that some of the Palestinian Authority's security forces were also involved in the "conspiracy" to topple the Hamas cabinet.

"The situation is very dangerous," he said. "I don't rule out the possibility that some of the [Palestinian] security forces and their commanders are behind the rocket attacks. They want to plunge the area into anarchy so that they can say that Hamas has failed."

...

Criticizing the US and EU decision to halt financial aid to the Palestinians in the wake of Hamas's victory in last January's parliamentary election, the minister said: "It's the duty of the Americans and Europeans to give us financial aid because they remained silent for over 50 years as Israel stole the lands of the Palestinians."

Arrogance. Sheer arrogance. There's more too.