IF IT wasn't murderous, it might almost be amusing, writes David Horovitz. The political leadership of the Hamas Islamic movement calling on its own militants to halt their vicious suicide attacks.
The Izzedin al Qassam Brigade, Hamas's so called military wing which is believed responsible for a series of such attacks in 1994 and 1995, says it is complying with the call. But the latest purported radical offshoot, which goes by the name of the "Disciples of Yihya Ayash", insists there can be no ceasefire, and is urging its own Hamas colleagues to stop suggesting that a truce can be reached.
Mr Jamil Hamami, a leading Hamas political figure in the Jerusalem area, formally associated with the movement's educational and social institutions rather than its militant cells, agreed yesterday that there was a certain amount of "confusion in the ranks".
Israeli analysts are not so sure. Many dismiss talk of splits and confrontations inside Hamas as deliberate disinformation, and brand the entire organisation as uncompromisingly opposed to any kind of accommodation with Israel.
Some of the best known Hamas political leaders in Gaza, including spokesman Mr Mahmoud Zahar, yesterday convened a press conference to publicly urge the bombers to stop the attacks, a plea swiftly accepted in a leaflet issued by Izzedin al Qassam. "We announce our complete respect to the call to halt all military attacks against Israel," the leaflet stated.
But similar pledges of cease fires' have been issued twice in the past week and then promptly breached. The latest bombings have been claimed by the so called disciples of Ayash, the master Hamas bomb maker who was assassinated, presumably by Israel, in Gaza two months ago.
President Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority has claimed that, by eliminating Ayash, Israel sparked the latest series of bombings, which began 50 days after the killing.