Onus on Europe to rise to the challenge

June 6, 2008

Onus on Europe to rise to the challenge

HOPES of dialogue leading to a reconciliation between the mainstream Palestinian leadership under President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas movement are very much in the air. However, the process faces major hurdles including the continued Hamas control of the Gaza Strip and Israel's warning to Abbas against reconciliation with Hamas. The issues are closely tied to each other in that Abbas regaining the control of the Gaza Strip would strengthen his position in negotiations with Israel, a prospect the Israelis are trying to ward off.
Abbas's call this week for reconciliation talks with Hamas without explicitly repeating previous demands it first give up the Gaza Strip fuelled speculation that two sides could be ready to discuss mending fences and address the biggest challenge facing the Palestinian liberation struggle.
However, the subsequent clarification by Abbas aide Saab Erakat that the president has not softened his position on reconciliation with Hamas threw cold water on the hopes. Erakat stated that any dialogue with Hamas still depends on the group returning the Gaza Strip to the control of the Palestinian National Authority under a Yemeni initiative.
The Hamas position is that the group is ready to resume dialogue but without preconditions and it reiterated this stand in response to Abbas's latest call.
Abbas has to follow a delicate line because he faces an Israeli warning that it could review its US-mediated engagement with Abbas if he were to mend relations with Hamas.
The Palestinian struggle for liberation turned a landmark point when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip nearly one year ago today. It splintered the liberation movement and Israel encouraged talk about two Palestinian identities — one in the West Bank led by Abbas and the Gaza Strip under Hamas control.
Israel seems to be playing a mult-faceted game. It is trying to corner Abbas into signing a deal involving only the West Bank that would include major Palestinian compromises. At the same time, it says it is willing to sign a broader agreement including the Gaza Strip but that will be effectively only when Abbas regains control of the coastal area (that is what it means when it insists on Abbas ensuring an end to armed resistance against Israel). And then there is the certainty that no agreement could be signed this year as promised by US President George W Bush.
Indeed, there are only some of the key elements showing their snouts above the surface in the Israeli-Palestinian equation. Much more complex issues lurk below the surface and every indication is that all talk about Palestinian reconciliation and any progress in peace negotiations would remain just talk unless there are major shifts in fundamental positions. Again, the Palestinians are in no position to be too flexible, given that their legitimate rights are at stake, whereas Israel could shift its positions at will, given that it has the Palestinians in a military stranglehold. And that is why external players have to enter the scene but not the likes of the US, which has openly thrown its weight behind Israel. In simple terms, it is high time that the Europeans, who have more at stake in the region than the Americans, broke away from the US-imposed constraints that prevent them from assuming an effective and leading role in the quest for Arab-Israeli peace. Can they rise to the challenge?