United against external pressure

February 14, 2007

United against external pressure


It was unfortunate that last-minute hitches delayed the announcement of a formation of Palestinian national unity government on Thursday.
It might not be accurate to describe the snags as simple power politics. Differences over who should occupy key cabinet are only a feature of coalition politics anywhere in the world, but not so simple in Palestine. A case in point is the post of interior minister in the proposed Palestinian cabinet. Hamas has named two candidates and insists Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas commit himself to one of them. Abbas wants to review more candidates.
Obviously, whoever exerts control over the interior ministry also controls the security forces, and the Fatah-Hamas wrangle reveals that the two groups still retain deep suspicion about each other.
There are of course other differences that Abbas and Hamas leader and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh need to resolve before they could announce a cabinet agreement.
Forming a new national unity goverment is the first step on a long away. Israel has to accept that the government's actions, including recognition of the Jewish state, represent the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has sensed that he is facing a critical moment in history. That is what he appears to have meant when he told a meeting with top ministers and intelligence chiefs:
"The agreement on the establishment of a unity government in the Palestinian Authority places the region at a juncture of a strategic decision of enormous significance, no less dramatic than what happened after Hamas' victory in the PA elections a year ago."
Signs so far after Hamas and Fatah worked out the Makkah agreement under Saudi auspices this month had been that Israel would not budge from the demands that Hamas should explicitly state that it recognises the Jewish state, renounces armed resistance and accepts the agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). It is not enough for Olmert that Hamas has moved towards this demands by agreeing to form a unity cabinet with Fatah and accept that the unity government could negotiate peace with Israel.
Obviously, Olmert believes that he could pressure Abbas into forcing Hamas to be very explicit in its position. That might not be the case at all.
As far as Hamas leaders are concerned, by coming so far with Fatah the Islamist movement has already compromised a lot and any further move should be reciprocated by Israel. It is not an area where Abbas could do much. He is caught in the middle of historic tug-of-war which would determine the future of Palestine and everyone involved knows it only too well.
What the Palestinians need today is absolute unity without reservations. Their failure to do so would be Israel's advantage.
Abbas and Haniyeh should be able to see through the situation and come up with a more unified position that would deny Israel the opportunity to exploit their differences.