PLO Opponents Bide Their Time, Waiting for Chairman to Fail : Autonomy: Leaders of Hamas see no point in being naysayers during Arafat’s visit. They trust that economic realities will soon erode his support.

On the crudely lettered block walls here, spray-painted with a reflection of the turmoil in this city, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has weighed in with uncharacteristic sweetness, calling for “the unity of the Palestinian people.”

What else to do, when crowds were giving Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman, an enthusiastic send-off Tuesday after his four-day visit, the first to his homeland in 27 years?

Hamas, bitterly opposed to the autonomy agreement Arafat signed with Israel, has put up no posters mocking the PLO leader. It mounted no demonstrations against his return. Hamas leaders--off the streets and parked instead in their offices, charity organizations and mosques--are biding their time and waiting for Arafat to fail.

“We are not going to stand in front of these emotional crowds who are welcoming Arafat, because some people like him. But at the same time, we will not let anybody say that we quit or stood aside. We are keeping silent, because we know this agreement will fail,” said Mohsen abu Ayta, a Hamas leader in Gaza. “We must let the people enjoy these emotional times. Let us bide our time.”

Hamas is keenly aware of the dilemma Arafat faced in returning relatively empty-handed to the Palestinian autonomous zones. The PLO chairman had delayed his return for weeks. He had hoped to negotiate to have cash on hand from $42 million in commitments to support the new Palestinian areas; he wanted to negotiate with the Israelis some dramatic breakthrough, such as the release of more Palestinian prisoners.

On the day before his Gaza debut Friday, neighborhoods here were abuzz with rumors that Arafat would produce a stunning “surprise” that would make his return memorable.

Some even speculated that he would perform a miracle, that he might somehow raise from the dead Abu Jihad, the deputy PLO leader and activist in the intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation; Jihad, also known as Khalil Wazir, was killed by Israeli commandos on April 16, 1988.

Many here hoped that Arafat might announce that Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin would be released from prison on the day of the PLO leader’s return.

Instead, Arafat’s welcoming speech in Gaza, and the ones that followed it in the next three days, apologized that the peace agreement was not better than it was. He fumed at the World Bank for holding up financial aid, he demanded in futile fashion that Sheik Yassin be released and he called on Palestinians to begin relying on themselves.

Though tens of thousands warmly welcomed him, part of the crowd began walking out of Gaza’s Parliament Square on Friday in the middle of Arafat’s speech. In interviews, most Palestinians were delirious about his return, but some were troubled that he brought nothing with him.

“Everybody now is wondering, why did he come? Why didn’t he wait until he had something to tell us?” said a supporter of Arafat’s Fatah organization. “All he told us about were the problems. It’s like a group of sick patients waiting for the doctor, and finally the doctor comes and says, ‘You are very sick.’ We already know that! We don’t need to be told!

“Everybody thought that when Arafat came back, he would bring us a surprise, some solution,” the young man went on. “OK, there are 20 terrible problems. Tell us you can fix even five of them or six of them. But what does he bring? Nothing.”

Hani Abed, an Islamic Jihad supporter whose recent arrest by Palestinian police spawned one of the first crises of the new Palestinian administration, said the Jihad organization is, like Hamas, waiting out the current euphoria.

“The happy period is gone now, with Arafat’s return,” Abed said. “Now the people have to face the reality of what will the Palestinian Authority do for the people. It’s not logical now to express our opposition to it. With the people wanting to see Arafat, we can do nothing now. But look at what happened when he came. The first couple of words, and many people left.”

Economics alone, Arafat’s opposition calculates, will have the fledgling Palestinian Authority in trouble soon. “The average policeman’s salary is $500 to $600 a month. The rent for an apartment here is $500. How is the policeman going to pay for his apartment? This is the issue,” Abed said.

It is perhaps a measure of the urgency with which the PLO leadership sees the need to begin attacking problems that Arafat has decided to take up permanent residence in Gaza as early as Saturday.

Stymied for weeks because all PLO decision-making comes straight from the top, PLO officials hope that Arafat will begin to remove roadblocks to setting up functioning government institutions and departments. And they claim to be unconcerned about the political opposition.

“Everyone was betting that there would be clashes between Fatah and Hamas, and all of the bets were wrong,” said Gaza Fatah spokesman Diab Nemer Allouh. “We are here in one unit, united for the benefit of the country.”

While not accepting any participation in the new Palestinian Authority, Hamas has struck a tentative alliance of sorts with the police, allowing them to go after alleged Israeli collaborators instead of assassinating them themselves.

But much will depend on the future of several suspects now believed to be in custody for the killing of a Hamas activist. Hamas leaders, who believe the man was killed by relatives of Israeli collaborators, say they are waiting to see if the suspects will be judged and executed.

Hamas, meanwhile, is quietly waiting until the first Palestinian elections, tentatively set for October, when it can begin capitalizing on the shortcomings of the autonomy plan. By then, Ayta said, Palestinians will be only too aware of the reality of the plan.

“I think of the agreement as a very nice meal,” he said. “Nice and tasty, good smell. But inside, it’s full of poison. When the people eat this meal, they are going to get a very big stomachache.”