Direct or indirect, Palestinians are telling Washington that no progress can be made in peace talks with Israel, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West BankApart from the usual pleasantries and reiteration of platitudes, the latest visit to Washington by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas seems to have failed to stir the waters in the American capital.
Abbas pleaded with President Obama to pressure Israel to show more seriousness in the current proximity -- or indirect -- talks with the Palestinians. However, Obama responded by merely reasserting his general commitment to the creation of a viable and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
He also reiterated his view that "both sides" would have to make sacrifices for peace, which he said was a Palestinian as well as an Israeli interest.
Abbas was unsatisfied by the mere repetition of old platitudes, asserted ad nauseam by successive US presidents in recent years, including George W Bush, but without being translated into facts on the ground. He warned that the two-state solution was becoming difficult if not impossible to realise. He told reporters in Washington that while the creation of a Palestinian state was still "our strategy", many inside and outside the region were reaching the conclusion that the strategy was unworkable.
Abbas pressed Washington to make more effort to get Israel to lift its crippling siege on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian leader, speaking in a stronger tone than usual, described the three-year-old blockade as "illegal and unethical". He emphasised that the PA was willing and ready to assume its responsibility in monitoring the movement of people and goods in both directions at border crossings between Gaza and the outside world.
Hamas doesn't object to the stationing of PA operatives at the Rafah crossing, but insists that Israel must not be allowed a final say as to when the border crossing is open and when it is closed. Israel had retained this privilege -- which the Palestinians complain made their freedom of movement hostage to Israeli whims -- by tightly controlling the access of European monitors who live in Israel to the terminal.
Prior to the violent showdown between Fatah and Hamas in July 2007, Israel used to routinely declare the road leading to the Rafah crossing a "closed military zone," thus barring European monitors from reaching the terminal.
According to the 2005 protocol governing the operation of Rafah Crossing, it can operate only in the presence of the monitors. Hence, Hamas wants to alter the rules, arguing that it is unfair to leave the Palestinians -- 1.6 million Gazans -- at Israel's mercy, especially after years of immense suffering, siege and war.
The Obama administration, using circumspect language, has been calling for relaxing the siege on Gaza, but without using strong language, apparently lest that alienate Israel or upset the powerful Jewish lobby in Washington. According to American and Israeli sources, the administration is seeking a "formula" whereby the consumer needs of the people of Gaza, especially in basic goods and products, are met but without strengthening Hamas.
This very much represents the current Israeli attitude, which means that the US would content itself with noticing a slight improvement of the current humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israel currently allows no more than 70 or 80 consumer items out of thousands previously available to reach Gaza. Israel had hoped that the draconian sanctions would force the people of Gaza to rise up against Hamas and replace it with the more moderate PA that Israel thinks would be more amenable to making concessions to Israel with regards to cardinal final status issues such as the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants uprooted from their homes when Israel came into being 62 years ago.
On Monday, 14 June, one Israeli cabinet minister admitted that the siege on Gaza utterly failed to unseat Hamas or prompt the Gazan masses to turn against the Islamic movement.
According to Palestinian sources, Obama asked Abbas to accelerate the pace of talks with Israel and switch to direct talks as soon as possible. However, Abbas told Obama that switching to direct talks would be futile in the absence of a solid agreement on the issue of borders and security.
Israel refuses to withdraw to the 4 June 1967 borders, insisting that the West Bank is "disputed" rather than an "occupied" territory. Israel also refuses to dismantle Jewish colonies built in the West Bank, especially those located west of the so-called "Separation Wall". Moreover, Israel refuses to cede East Jerusalem, which it considers part of its "eternal and undivided capital".
Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister, who is due to visit Washington in late June or early July, has been pressing Washington to pressure Abbas to agree to direct bilateral talks with Israel. Palestinian officials have called such talks a ruse for diluting the entire peace process, gaining more time in order build more Jewish settlements and frustrating the Obama administration into stopping pressuring Israel.
Nonetheless, it is widely assumed that Abbas tends to agree with switching to direct talks, if only to prove to Washington that the problem doesn't lie in whether the talks are direct or indirect but rather in Israel's refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 war.
The failure of the US-mediated process to make any substantive progress is weakening the Palestinian leadership. Last week, the PA leadership abruptly cancelled municipal elections that were due to take place mid-July. The PA didn't explain the decision, but many observers argued that internal disunity within Fatah and the group's fear of a poor showing stood behind the decision.
Fatah's current standing is in sharp contrast with that of Hamas, which has gained further popularity in the aftermath of the bloody Israeli attack on the Free Gaza Flotilla and growing calls from the international community for lifting the siege in Gaza. The recent visit to Gaza by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also boosted Hamas, at least psychologically.
Hamas hopes that concerted efforts to lift the siege, and the renewed movement towards reconciliation with Fatah, will place the movement in a better bargaining position vis-à-vis the mainstream Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) faction. A high-ranking delegation comprising PLO officials is slated to visit Gaza in the next few weeks to hold further talks with Hamas's leaders on national reconciliation.
Hamas said it would welcome the delegation.
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