What's next, Abbas?
defer any longer the imperative of re-establishing
Palestinian national unity,
asks Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
The obvious failure of Palestinian Authority (PA) President
Mahmoud Abbas's latest visit to Washington has been
reverberating through Palestinian society, with many
intellectuals and pundits advising Abbas to "quit"
or at least stop acting at the US administration's
beck and call. Some critics have even called for
dismantling the PA and abandoning the two-state
solution strategy in favour of the one-state solution
of a democratic state for all its citizens.
Abbas, in a frank and daring admission, told reporters
following his meeting with President Bush at the White
House last week that he failed to obtain a commitment
from the US administration to pressure Israel into halting
its wave of Jewish-only settlement building in East
Jerusalem and the West Bank. The intensive settlement
expansion drive brazenly defies US-led peace efforts,
including the Quartet-backed roadmap and last year's
Annapolis conference.
For their part, the Israelis deny that they are reneging on
commitments or pledges. Israeli leaders argue that they
are only meeting housing needs related to "natural growth"
within existing settlements. They also cite a private
"understanding" contained in a letter sent by President Bush
to former prime minister Ariel Sharon whereby Israel was
given a green light to continue expanding settlements
irrespective of peace talks with the Palestinians.
The Bush administration has been reticent to acknowledge
this supposed "understanding". However, its enduring refusal
to rebuke Israel for its continued colonisation of Palestinian land
underscores the extent of US-Israeli connivance against
Palestinian interests and exposes the duplicity of US
political calculations with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Palestinian sources close to PA-Israeli talks last week reported
that Israeli negotiators on many occasions confronted their
Palestinian counterparts with a series of written "pledges"
and "letters" from the Bush administration assuring Israel that
major Jewish settlements, at least, would be annexed into
Israel in the context of a final-status deal with the Palestinians.
Hence, according to Israeli negotiators, there was no
justification for "vociferous" Palestinian protest every time
Israel decided to build additional settler units in the West Bank.
Reportedly, Abbas was also especially upset by
President Bush's refusal to pledge that any contemplated
Palestinian "state" would be created on 100 per cent of the
Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967. The
implications of Bush's refusal are as clear as they are
painful for the Palestinian leadership; namely that the
Palestinians should stop dreaming of a full and total
Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
According to sources within Abbas's immediate circle, the
PA leader has come to feel "betrayed" and "deceived" by
the Bush administration. "We thought there was only one
game in town, and that was the roadmap," one PA official
told Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity. "But it
turned out that the Bush administration had been giving
Israel all sorts of assurances and pledges behind our back,
which violate and nullify the essence of the roadmap."
Asked what he thought the PA would do next, the
frustrated official said: "I would lie to you if I told you I
knew the answer."
The Weekly asked senior Fatah official Hatem Abdul-Qader
for his view as to what the PA should do in light of US
refusals to pressure Israel to halt settlement expansion in
the West Bank. "I think it is time for all of us, including
President Abbas, to realise that it is probably too late for
the creation of a Palestinian state," he said. "All peace
talks with Israel seem to have been a gigantic fiasco --
a total failure and big lie."
Like many PA and Fatah officials, Abdul- Qader believes
that Abbas is facing a real dilemma in having to choose
between appeasing the US by compromising the
Palestinian cause, or rebuilding Palestinian national
unity with Hamas, which would upset Israel and the US
and which might lead to the reinstitution of US-led sanctions
on the PA. "It is clear that talks with Israel have reached a
dead end. It is also clear that Israel is using the national
rift between Fatah and Hamas to impose its conditions
on us," Abdul-Qader said.
"All the promises and pledges the Bush administration
has made to us have evaporated," Abdul-Qader continues.
"The US is only indulging in an open-ended process of
deception for the purpose of giving Israel the time it needs
to build more settlements and make the task of creating a
viable Palestinian state unrealistic and unachievable."
Asked what he would advise Abbas to do in light of
receding prospects of reaching a breakthrough before
the end of 2008, Abdul-Qader said he would advise the
PA president to "pay attention to our internal situation
and stop bidding on fruitless talks with Israel. Abbas
should be courageous enough to tell the Americans that
he won't sacrifice paramount Palestinian national interests
for the sake of American and Israeli interests."
Abdul-Qader adds that in order for Abbas to be able to
say "No" to the US and Israel, Hamas "will have to make
the first step by accepting the Yemeni initiative". Fatah
could facilitate this by refraining from "making impossible
preconditions for national reconciliation".
Earlier this week, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip called
on Abbas to "draw the correct conclusion" from the "rebuff"
he received in Washington. "We call on President
Mahmoud Abbas to stop seeking water from the
American mirage. We urge him to immediately embark
on tangible steps to re-establish national unity. It is only
with national unity that we can restore our rights and
safeguard the vital interests of our people."
Abbas has not said what he will do next apart from
continuing in talks with Israel. Hani Al-Masri, a prominent
political analyst in Ramallah, told the Weekly that Abbas's
dilemma "stems mainly from the fact that he lacks a plan-B."
Abbas "trusted the Americans too much and for too long.
He should have explored alternatives to this futile process."
"He should extend his hand to Hamas and re- establish
Palestinian national unity, irrespective of American and
Israeli reactions. He should stop this futile process
under whose rubric Israel is liquidating the Palestinian
cause," Al-Masri added.
Al-Masri acknowledges that if Abbas were to cut from
the so-called "peace process", the US and Israel would
employ all kinds of sanctions, including starving the
Palestinian population, to get him back in line. "But in
the long run, [the US] will accept the fait accompli. After
all, if we stand united, the whole world, including the
Americans, will respect us. The ball is in our court,
and no one else's."
Caption: A NEW ISRAELI OUTRAGE: The battered
bodies of four Palestinian children killed by Israeli fire
lay at a morgue in Beit Lahia, Gaza. The four children,
aged one to five, and their mother were killed during
Israeli military operations
C a p t i o n 2: A NEW ISRAELI OUTRAGE: The
battered bodies of four Palestinian children killed by
Israeli fire lay at a morgue in Beit Lahia, Gaza. The four
children, aged one to five, and their mother were killed
during Israeli military operations.
__,_._,___
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment