Since returning to Gaza on Monday, the spiritual mentor of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, has made an almost non-stop stream of statements, defining his stand on various issues.
To the Palestine Authority and its President, Mr Yasser Arafat, the sheikh has made it clear that all Palestinians should unite to end the Israeli occupation and achieve statehood in the West Bank and Gaza - the goal of the Authority. To Israel the sheikh has said that the Palestinian people, including those living in the diaspora, would be prepared to "live with the Jews . . . in brotherhood, co-operation and coexistence on condition they do not usurp our rights".
He stated that Hamas would suspend violent attacks against Israel if it withdrew its soldiers and settlements from the West Bank and Gaza, but warned the Palestinians would fight if Israel "humiliated them and stole their land". The sheikh took a similar line during his eight years in Israeli jails. On several occasions he called upon Hamas militants to release kidnapped Israeli soldiers and consistently told Hamas political leaders to seek rapprochement with the Palestinian Authority.
Revered as a saint by supporters of Hamas and untainted by the dubious wheeling and dealing and corruption which has alienated Palestinians from their secular leaders, Sheikh Yassin could use his considerable moral influence to curb the militants within Hamas, heal their rift with the moderates and reconcile the Islamists and the Palestine Authority.
The angry young men recruited by Hamas's military wing, the Izzedin al-Qassam brigades, and the militant Hamas leaders in Amman and Damascus, would find it very difficult to mount further suicide bombing missions inside Israel if Sheikh Yassin let it be known he disapproved. Likewise, Mr Arafat and his entourage would find it impossible to resist the Sheikh's call for a power-sharing partnership with Hamas.
A leading opposition figure, Dr Haidar Abdel Shafi of Gaza (who last week resigned his seat in the Legislative Council in protest against Authority corruption and the lack of democracy) predicted that the sheikh would promote pluralism and curb the excesses of Mr Arafat's ministers, bureaucrats and security forces.
The sheikh's release has thus provided both the Authority and Israel with an opportunity to bring Hamas as a whole on board the peace process. To achieve this end the Authority will have to release Hamas detainees against whom it cannot make a legal case and allow Hamas to reopen the 15 schools and institutions the Palestine police closed two weeks ago. Yesterday, as a gesture to the sheikh, Mr Arafat released a Hamas leader, Mr Mahmud Taha, arrested two weeks ago.