Signs of rapprochement

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/896/re2.htm

Leaders within Fatah are waking up to the dangers of the present course charted by Abbas, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank

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Efforts to encourage good will and foster a positive atmosphere are likely to continue as both Hamas and Fatah realise that the party that appears to be hindering national unity will lose respect in the eyes of the Palestinian masses. A recent opinion poll showed that a growing number of Palestinians are shunning both Fatah and Hamas due to their enduring schism. Khalil Shekaki, who conducted the poll, says the trend is likely to endure if meaningful steps are not taken to end the crisis.

Apart from the public mood, there are certain political calculations prompting both sides to reconsider their entrenched positions. Many influential people within Fatah are becoming convinced that any prospective peace deal with Israel would be far below Palestinian expectations -- let alone aspirations -- absent rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas.

Firas Yaghi is the former executive director of the Palestinian Elections Committee. He argues that a genuine peace process with Israel hinges on internal Palestinian harmony. "Without national unity, we can't reach peace with Israel, and our people will not be able to attain their goals, and we will eventually be overwhelmed by national melancholy," he said.

However, it is unlikely that US President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert -- the latter eager to display toughness in talks with the Palestinians in order to divert attention from his latest corruption scandal that may signal an early end to his political career -- will tolerate the restoration of Palestinian national unity. The reason is clear. Solid rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas would strengthen the Palestinian negotiation position and make it harder for Israel and the US to blackmail and bully Abbas, a man of weaker calibre compared to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

With Hamas sitting next to the Fatah driver, or even in the back seat, many Palestinians believe that Palestinian negotiators would be in a better position to wrest from Israel most if not all of their demanded rights covered by UN resolutions 242 and 338. This includes the total Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967, including all of East Jerusalem, as well as a just settlement for Palestinian refugees pursuant UN Resolution 194.

Abbas, at least ostensibly, doesn't object to these "constants". However, his commitment to them appears significantly less than that of Hamas and even the vast bulk of Fatah leaders, especially at the grassroots and intermediate levels. Hence, US-Israeli insistence on keeping the Hamas- Fatah rift intact, at least as long as it takes to get Abbas to accept a final peace settlement in line with Israeli-US preferences, namely a deformed and truncated entity, without East Jerusalem, without territorial contiguity, and certainly without honouring the right of return of refugees.

Israel and the US, rightly or wrongly, believe that the Hamas factor, despite all efforts to neutralise it, is preventing Abbas from accepting such a settlement. This is likely what Israeli President Shimon Peres meant when he claimed this week that, "had it not been for Hamas, the Palestinians would have had an independent state a long time ago."

Most Palestinians scoff at such remarks given the fact that Israeli settlement expansion, which is continuing unabated despite peace talks and constant European protest, has been and continues to be the central factor impeding the creation of a viable Palestinian state.

Now, with peace talks going nowhere despite dubious leaks suggesting progress