The new Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, is little known in the West, but has earned huge respect among the people of his native Gaza. While the Fateh leadership rarely moves through Gaza without an armed escort, Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders routinely walk alone through all of Gaza's towns and refugee camps. "Hamas is not corrupt," said Gaza City university student Amal Faud, 23. "I have full confidence in Ismail Haniyeh and the other Hamas leaders."

While the Western press has focused on Hamas's Islamist roots and expressed concern they will impose a Taliban-style regime on Palestine, such sentiments are rare among the citizens of Gaza. Al Surani, a secular lawyer from Gaza City, explained that Ismail Haniyeh "listens more than he speaks. He understands the peoples' concerns, and when he does speak, he is tactful and coherent."

Haniyeh's political opponents might take issue with the new Prime Minister's tact. At last Friday's prayers in his neighborhood mosque, Haniyeh announced he was refusing the customary salary of US$4000 a month offered him by the Palestinian Authority. No, he said, he would take only US$1500 a month, the amount he actually needed to support his family. He pointed out that his party had won the election on their pledge to reform the Palestinian Authority where, for instance, a certain PA bureaucrat earned US$200,000 annually. A PA spokesman, Al Taeeb Abdelraheem, immediately issued a press release saying, "Such statements by the new Prime Minister are not appropriate to his office."

Haniyeh, however, seems determined to show Fatah-and the world-a new standard of appropriate behavior. Born in 1963 to a refugee family originally from Al Jouar village, he grew up in Beach Camp, one of the poorest refugee camps in Gaza City. Like the other camp children, he studied in UNRWA schools , then went on to graduate from Islamic University in Gaza City in the Arabic Language department.

As an undergraduate, he became active in the Islamic Block, the student wing of the Muslim Brotherhood that would later become Hamas. During his student days, 1983-86, he was often at odds with the Fatah-led student groups.

After completing his master's degree, he joined the university faculty, and later became an administrator at Islamic University. He preferred to keep a low profile politically, but was nonetheless jailed four times, and was finally exiled with 400 other Hamas and Islamic Jihad members in December, 1992.

He returned to Gaza and his university post in 1994, and was marked as a terrorist by the Israeli Army. In fact, he worked closely with Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, serving as the wheelchair-bound cleric's office manager and confidential aide. As the second Intifada continued, the Israelis stepped up their program of extra-judicial assassinations, targeting public Hamas figures like Dr. Rantisi and the Sheikh. Haniyeh assumed a public role in the Hamas movement only after the murder of Sheikh Yassin on 21 March, 2004 when the Israelis bombed the elderly man's car as he returned from morning prayers.

In the next two years, Haniyeh became a forceful public speaker, a superb listener-and now, Palestine's Prime Minister. "But Ismail Haniyeh hasn't changed," insists Abu Fadi Al Hasani, a 50-year-old neighbor in the Beach Camp. "He still prays every day in the mosque where we all pray. He respects all the people. Anyone-a child, an elderly person-can talk with him and he will listen."

Indeed, Haniyeh and his family of 13 children have never moved from their home in Beach Camp. "I know," said Al Hasani, "he was offered a much bigger, better house outside the camp. And I know he said, 'I'm not going to leave my people, my neighborhood, for something that doesn't belong to me!'"

Despite his blunt style, Haniyeh has a history of opening dialogue with the Fateh factions. His self-deprecating humor also sets him apart from many Palestinian politicians. Back in December, 2003, Sheikh Yassin, Haniyeh, and other Hamas members narrowly escaped an Israeli assassination attempt when the Israeli Air Forced bombed a house where they had been meeting.

At a Hamas rally soon after, he explained that when he heard the Israeli helicopters approaching, he ran clumsily down a metal staircase, put his leg through an opening and was momentarily stuck. When they'd all gotten safely away and he told the Sheikh of his mishap, the elderly, crippled imam told him, "Oh, you should have called me! I would have rescued you!"

Although the new Prime Minister has just assumed his office, President Abbas, Israel, and the international community have barraged the new Hamas leadership with a list of conditions-they will recognize and deal with a Hamas-led government only if the new leaders recognize Israel, honor existing agreements made with Israel by the PLO, and renounce violence.

Asked his opinion of these conditions, Haniyeh's response has been consistent and clear: " We are surprised that such conditions are imposed on us. Why don't they direct such conditions and questions to Israel? Has Israel respected their agreements? Israel has bypassed practically all agreements. We say: Let Israel recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinians first and then we will have a position regarding this. Which Israel should we recognize? The Israel of 1917; the Israel of 1936; the Israel of 1948; the Israel of 1956; or the Israel of 1967? Which borders and which Israel? Israel has to recognize first the Palestinian state and its borders. At least then we will know what we are talking about."

Asked in a phone interview if his government would honor the existing Oslo Accords, Haniyeh replied,
"The Oslo agreements said that a Palestinian state would be established by 1999. Where is this Palestinian state? Has Oslo given the right to Israel to reoccupy the West Bank, to build the wall and expand the settlements, and to Judaize Jerusalem and make it totally Jewish? Has Israel been given the right to disrupt the work on the port and airport in Gaza? Has Oslo given them the right to besiege Gaza and to stop all tax refunds to the Palestinian Authority?"

Of course, there are more questions than answers-questions Israel and the international community do not seem eager to address. Haniyeh won his office on his unblemished reputation and a promise of reform and transparency, but he faces heavy internal and external challenges. Externally, Israel, the US and the EU are threatening an economic siege on Palestine, cutting off development programs and humanitarian aid.

Internally, the challenges are almost as severe, as some of his Fatah opponents, whatever their public rhetoric, hope a spectacular Hamas failure will bring a call for new elections and their return to power If Haniyeh, however, can chart an honest, pragmatic course of partnership with the international community, working toward a peaceful solution that preserves Palestinian rights, it will very likely quell much of the political in-fighting.

But one of the most pressing and immediate problems is Israel's ongoing military attacks on Gaza and the West Bank. Indeed, Prime Minister Haniyeh faces an ongoing threat he cannot readily neutralize, namely that from the Israeli helicopters and F16s. Israel has announced it will continue its program of extra-judicial assassinations and just a few days ago, Avi Dichter, former head of the Israeli Shin Bet security service, announced the Palestinian Prime Minister is still subject to arrest. So Ismail Haniyeh, democratically elected Parliamentarian, and Palestine's new prime minister, is threatened by Israeli bombs as much as the humblest citizen.

"We regret this decision of Hamas. In observing convention, the leaders of Hamas will squeeze the hand of the killers of 250,000 Muslims of Chechnya, among which are 42,000 Chechen children," said Movladi Udugov on Web site www.kavkazcenter.com.

Russian troops have fought for 11 years to crush Chechnya's separatists. Although fighting has waned, soldiers and police still die daily in clashes with rebels.

Udugov, who heads the rebels' information service, was using a casualty figure for the 11-year Chechen war several times higher than most estimates, although observers agree that savagery on both sides has killed thousands of civilians.

"Their chosen path could once again push the Islamic movement into a political dead end and ideological degeneration. In the end, Hamas risks becoming another Yasser Arafat," Udugov said, referring to the former Palestinian leader whose administration was widely criticised as corrupt.

Russia has said it will press Hamas to accept the "road map" which seeks to achieve Israeli-Palestinian coexistence and says Hamas must recognise the Israel and renounce violence.

Udugov, who represents the wing of the Chechen rebels that has conducted the worst attacks on civilians of the war, said Hamas was naive to think that the friendship of President Vladimir Putin could give the movement recognition.

"It is naive to expect that Putin's Russia can be some kind of political partner for the Palestinian people. It is not the communist party that now sits in the Kremlin, but people who have committed appalling crimes," he said.

Akhmed Zakayev, who lives in London and represents the separatists' less radical wing, said the visit showed that Hamas did not care about the cause of fellow Muslims in Chechnya.

"People justifying the murder of the Chechen people could in no way be seen as friends or comrades of the Chechens," he said in comments on another rebel Web site (www.chechenpress.info).

"What benefit could the Chechen leaders gain from contacts with a movement that with all its strength tries to establish contacts with the Chechens' deadliest enemies."

Israel has been able to ignore this generous offer, whose continuing validity the Arab League has periodically reaffirmed, because it has always been offered as a carrot unaccompanied by any consequential alternative which a significant number of Israelis might view as a stick. In this context, the new Palestinian leadership should simultaneously declare (preferably with the concurrence of President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah) that, if Israel does not publicly agree to proceed toward a two-state solution in accordance with the Beirut Declaration by a reasonable date (say, three months hence), the Palestinian people will consider that Israel has definitively rejected a two-state solution in favor of a one-state solution and, accordingly, will thereafter seek their liberation and self-determination through citizenship in a single democratic state in all of pre-1948 Palestine, free of all forms of discrimination and with equal rights for all who live there.

The new Palestinian leadership should make clear that, after 39 years of foreign military occupation, the Palestinian people can no longer tolerate the cynical series of never-ending "peace plans" (including the current "roadmap") designed by others simply to postpone the necessary and obvious choices and to string out forever a perpetual "peace process" while further entrenching the occupation with new "facts on the ground".

It should make clear that the Palestinian people demand, without further delay, a solution that will permit both Palestinians and Israelis to live decent, dignified and secure lives, that they could accept either a two-state solution in accordance with international law or a one-state solution in accordance with fundamental democratic principles and that they are willing to let the Israeli people choose whichever of those two alternatives Israelis prefer and to accept Israel's choice.

It should appeal to the international community, and particularly to Israel's traditional friends, to encourage Israel to choose peace -- on the basis of whichever of these two alternatives (the only alternatives for peace which exist or will ever exist) Israelis prefer.

Finally, it should appeal to all Palestinian factions, with the full force of the legitimacy it has earned, to suspend all acts of violent resistance to the occupation throughout the period allotted for Israel's choice and to make that suspension permanent if Israel chooses positively.

Importantly, this "Palestinian peace plan" should be launched promptly, prior to Israel's March 28 general election. Israeli law does not contemplate referendums, but general elections can serve that purpose. One or more competing parties, if given adequate time to react, might offer Israeli voters a positive choice. If all the major Israeli parties were to reject both a decent two-state solution and a democratic one-state solution, the world could draw the appropriate conclusions and Western public opinion could shift in ways which, over a longer term, would themselves prove a force for peace with some measure of justice.

The former Palestinian leadership was a passive and reactive one. It simply responded to whatever initiatives others, who rarely had the best interests of the Palestinian people at heart, chose to declare, for a time, the "only game in town". It never dared to try to seize the initiative, to set the agenda and to make Israel and the world react to a positive Palestinian idea.

The Palestinian people have voted for change. A rare moment of opportunity is at hand. It can and must be seized.

John V. Whitbeck, an international lawyer, is author of "The World According to Whitbeck". He can be reached at: jvwhitbeck@awalnet.net.sa

A final score of 1:1 may not be the most impressive, but for the youngsters of Bil'in it was a glorious achievement. For them, it was not the result that was important, nor even the match itself (against a team from the nearby town of Betunya). What was important was where it took place: on an improvised football field that was hastily leveled on the land that was stolen from the village by the Separation Wall.

The match was a part of a unique event. In the poor, little village, with its 1500 inhabitants, which few had ever heard of before the start of its heroic battle against the Wall, an "International Conference on the Joint, Non-violent struggle Against the Wall" took place. In the framework of this event, which lasted for two days, a range of activities was organized: reports and debates about the struggle, the award of honor shields to the families of the nine people who lost their lives in the fight against the Wall, the planting of olive saplings on the stolen land, the inauguration of the football field and the match itself.

I had the honor of being invited to deliver one of the opening speeches, before an audience of 300 people - inhabitants of Bil'in, members of the Palestinian parliament, representatives of the struggle in several areas along the Wall, Israeli peace activists and delegates from European solidarity groups. This is what I said:

Dear Friends,

Every time I come to Bil'in, I am excited and happy.

This village, this little village, has become a symbol in Palestine, in Israel, indeed throughout the world. Your fight reflects the struggle of the entire Palestinian people.

Three traits distinguish the struggle of Bil'in, three characteristics that complement each other and together make Bil'in as extraordinary as it is:

First, the tenacity, persistence and courage of the Palestinian people..

Second, the partnership with the Israeli peace camp.

Third, the support of solidarity movements all over the world.

To these one can add another characteristic that marks Bil'in as a shining example: the complete non-violence of the fight.

A few days ago, the Dalai Lama visited this country. He met important people and celebrities and had his picture taken with them. I would have advised him to come to Bil'in and learn a lesson in non-violence.

When we try to analyze the struggle, we have always to come back to the essence of the matter: In this country, there live two peoples, two nations, and the aim of our endeavors is to create peace, peace based on justice.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not resemble any other struggle in the world. It is not a repeat of the South African ordeal, nor a second edition of the Algerian War of Liberation. This is a unique conflict, brought about by unique circumstances.

A famous historian described it this way: A person lives on an upper floor of a building in which a fire has broken out. To save his life, he jumps out of a window and lands on top of a passer-by, who is grievously hurt. Between the two, a mortal enmity ensues.

Who is in the right? The person who jumped out of the window to save his life? Or the second person, who was hurt and ruined without having done anything wrong?

The Zionist movement was born because Europe was becoming a hell for the Jews - fifty years before the Holocaust, the terrible Holocaust that killed millions of Jews, and in the wake of which the State of Israel was founded. The first Zionists believed that the country was empty. Their main slogan was: "A country without people for a people without a country." When the Zionists discovered that there was a population already living in this country, they tried to push it out.

This effort continues until this very day - and so does the tenacious struggle of the Palestinian people for its existence and its land.

That is the reality of the conflict - two peoples living in the same country and fighting each other. The struggle of Bil'in against the Wall that is stealing its land is a part of this historic conflict.

Thirty two years ago, right after the Yom Kippur War, the Ramadan War, Yasser Arafat drew the conclusion that there is no military solution to this conflict. He resolved to seek a political settlement.

A small group of Israeli peace activists decided to join this initiative. We set up the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. Arafat instructed his emissaries to contact us - first Sa'id Hamami, then Issam Sartawy, two senior Fatah leaders. Both were later murdered by the enemies of peace and the enemies of Arafat. May their memory live with us.

In 1982, in the middle of the Lebanon War, I crossed the lines and met with Arafat in beleaguered Beirut. In the middle of the battle, in the middle of the bombardments, Arafat talked about peace between our two peoples.

Arafat was already laying down a strategy based on three principles: to persist in the struggle of the Palestinian people, to hold out the hand to the Israeli peace camp and to call for international solidarity. These are also the three principles of Bil'in today.

You may ask - indeed, you must ask: What has the Israeli peace movement achieved?

On the face of it - nothing. On the contrary, since the Oslo agreement, the situation of the Palestinians has worsened from year to year. The economic misery is deepening even further. Every day, people are being killed. The construction of the monster Wall is continuing. The racist settlements are spreading rapidly. Just now we learned that the Jordan Valley - a third of the West Bank - is being cut off from the Palestinian territory and practically annexed to Israel. The victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections is a result of these actions.

All this is happening in plain view. But below the surface a contrary process is at work.

Fifty years ago, only a handful of people in Israel and around the world recognized the existence of the Palestinian people. Even 32 years ago, Golda Meir could declare that "there is no such thing as a Palestinian people". Nowadays there is no normal person in Israel and the world who denies the existence of the Palestinian people and its right to a state of its own. That is a victory for the tenacious Palestinian struggle, but also for the Israeli peace movement.

Twenty years ago, when we called for negotiations with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, we were a small band. We were told that Arafat was a murderer, that the PLO was a terrorist organization, that the Palestinian Charter called for the destruction of Israel - exactly the same phrases which are now being used about Hamas. But a few years later, the State of Israel recognized the PLO, negotiated with it and signed an agreement with it. That was a victory for the tenacious Palestinian struggle, but also a victory for the Israeli peace movement.

Dear Friends, it is very easy to despair. Every one of us has moments of depression. But I am convinced that peace will win, justice will win.

A few weeks ago I was in Berlin. In the shops there, pieces of the Berlin Wall are on sale. I paid 2.50 Euros for one of them. The day will come when here, in Bil'in, in the free State of Palestine, one will be able to buy pieces of the Wall that we are fighting against today.

Every time when I am in Bil'in and other places in occupied Palestine, I can't help thinking what a paradise this country would be if there were peace, peace based on justice and mutual respect.

This peace will come. And when it comes, the last wish of Yasser Arafat, whose picture hangs here, will be fulfilled: his remains will be interred in Jerusalem.

"We are talking about two independent countries that respect each other's interests," Toren explained. "Even if 'Uncle Sam' tries to sell something to a neighbor with whom we do not have an agreement, there is a dialogue on the issue."

Toren confirmed that the ministry wanted to create a department to coordinate security-related exports with the defense and trade and industry ministries. He said the idea is for the department to be under the director-general of the Defense Ministry, and emphasized that it would not supercede existing mechanisms for approving security exports, the main one of which is SIBAT, the Foreign Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization.

Toren denied any American pressure to create the new body.

"The Americans asked to verify, because of their technology, that there is closer supervision of security exports. We offered to set up a special department within the Defense Ministry to monitor export permits."

According to the Defense Ministry, in 2005 contracts were signed in 2005 for the export of more than $3 billion between Israeli and foreign companies. Toren said that to encourage exports the ministry plans to open new offices abroad, including in Japan.

Toren opposes the idea of creating a single Israel company that would unite all of the military companies currently operating in the country. "Privatization isn't the be-all and end-all," he said. "I don't go to the extreme of a single company of four or five billion dollars. It would be small next to international giants like Lockheed Martin. I think it's realistic to think about three companies. After the rehabilitation or privatization of Israel Military Industries is completed, I see three leading companies in Israel: Elbit Systems, IAI and Rafael, with the smaller companies as well.

The Defense Ministry would prefer to have IAI sold to Elbit, with the exception of the missile division, which would be sold to Rafael.

"Elbit isn't the only option," Toren admitted, "but I don't want to scatter infrastructures and encourage competition abroad. For example, Elta makes radar systems, they have no Israeli competition and they compete nicely abroad. Tomorrow someone can come and say he's buying IAI and wants to make radar systems. Would that be good? No, it would be bad. But the Finance Ministry insisted on competition and on making purchases according to negotiations and estimated value. And there's another technique, that of creating joint corporations between government and private companies. It's semi-privatization, and it works pretty well."