Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Organization's central Fatah faction, and 11 other Palestinian groups weighed a draft document which could spell a cessation of terror attacks in Israeli cities. After years of terror attacks, "The Palestinians are losing across a very broad front, they are on the threshold of de-legitimization by the United States, the gravest of matters." Bradley Burston Ha'aretz wrties today..
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If Hamas consents to such an understanding, "I believe we are speaking of a total halt to attacks on civilians within the state of Israel," said Arab MK and ex-senior Arafat advisor Ahmed Tibi. He said the powerful Islamic organization could give its answer in a matter of days. After years of terror attacks, "The Palestinians are losing across a very broad front, they are on the threshold of de-legitimization by the United States, the gravest of matters."
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The draft document coincided with an unprcedented paroxysm of internal criticism within Arafat's Palestinian Authority. In recent days, ranking Palestinian officials have begun speaking out against the institution of the Authority itself. West Bank and Gaza natives like Fatah lawmaker Fares Kadura have proposed dismantling the PA altogether, arguing that Arafat's current leadership lineup - which led the PLO from the Palestinian diaspora until signing peace deals with Israel in 1993-4 - placed self-perpetuation over the plight of their hard-hit constituents. The calls for breaking up the PA came from quarters as high-profile as Hanan Ashrawi, long a prominent spokeswoman for the Authority.
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Asked when Hamas might signal its agreement to the document, Tibi told Army Radio: "They are closer than they have ever been in the past." He said that Hamas had helped word the document, "and I believe it is a matter of days until they will give their answer regarding the substance."
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The draft document includes a clause endorsing Palestinian independence within the 1967 borders, an apparent departure for Hamas, which does not recognize Israel and is explicitly dedicated to an Islamic Palestine encompassing the borders of present-day Israel as well as the territories.
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A senior Hamas official indicated that Hamas would reserve the right to continue to argue for a Palestinian state on all the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. Nonetheless, Tibi said, "The fact that Hamas is meeting in a kind of modus vivendi with the Fatah organization over establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel within the 1967 borders, is an important point. Tibi added that the agreement constituted "important progress" despite the implication that attacks would continue in the West Bank and Gaza.
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Alluding to previous cease-fire discussions that ended when Hamas military chief Salah Shehadeh was killed in an July IAF bombing that killed 11 children and a number of adult civilians, Tibi said he hoped that until Hamas was ready to sign the current accord "no F-16 airplane will kill any Palestinian leader." Tibi said the assassination "cut off a historic move."
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Having a hardline image of its own to maintain, even if hardline Hamas decides to join the effort to quell attacks, it may well refrain from any public acknowledgement of having done so, says Ha'aretzArab Affairs Editor Danny Rubinstein. "There is very wide Palestinian public support for terror attacks within Israel, and Hamas, which enjoys the massive backing of the majority of the public, will not want to commit itself."
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In order to avoid the appearance of having capitulated to Israel, '"Perhaps Hamas will stop the attacks in practice, but it is almost 100 percent sure that it will make no official announcement to that effect."
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The continuing Palestinian loss of faith in the peace process was reflected in a public opinion poll conducted by the West Bank's Bir Zeit University and quoted by Israel Radio Monday showed that support for peace talks with Israel had sharply declined over the last six months - from 70 to 55 percent.
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Hopes for a diplomatic solution have also dimmed markedly on the Israeli side. However, a prime minister with a peace plan could still marshal broad public support behind a diplomatic offensive, argues Ha'aretz commentator Gideon Samet. "A majority in Israel still exists for re-opening negotiations with the Palestinians. Also, once a leader here stands behind such an initiative, all of a sudden it can garner support from a number of sources, among them the frustration of the Israeli public and the fact that Israelis basically want to live in peace, just as, basically, Palestinians want to live in peace."
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Samet said that the Sharon-led military offensives had significantly weakened the Palestinian leadership. "If one of the outcomes is that Fatah as well as Hamas are ready to negotiate, that could constitute an achievement, providing - and this is a big caveat - that Sharon did this with the sincere intention of using this momentum in order to enter negotiations."
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But Samet says no evidence has yet been seen to suggest that Sharon would bend to pick up a truce gauntlet, were it to be thrown. "The last time around, when was serious news that such talks were going on and more were underway, he bombed Shehadeh," Samet notes. "I am among those who believe that the timing of the attack on Shehadeh - which had been called off eight times previously - had to do with news of an impending agreement over a cessation of terror strikes.
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"Another leader might have used the opportunity either sincerely to sit down and discuss an opening, or to call their bluff. He didn't do either."
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Moreover, as the Israeli political climate heats up and elections loom, "Sharon believes that this is not a good time - if there is such a thing - to make a move that might lead to wider negotiations, which could eventually necessitate far-reaching concessions on Israel's part. He doesn't want to step into the electoral arena with what he thinks many would see as selling out, as a blot, a stain on his record.
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The failure to initiate diplomacy or to take advantage of a string of opportunities, when relative calm appeared to meet his own stringent conditions for a return to a peace process, "has been, and unfortunately, is going to continue to be, Sharon's major fault as a leader."
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In any case, cautioned Peres, traditionally the indefatigable champion of diplomatic lost causes, a halt to attacks within Israel could backfire on the Palestinian groups, if it were accompanied by continuing assaults in the West Bank and Gaza.
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"This would be a mistake of the first magnitude, because Israel would then transfer all of its priorities to the setters and the settlements," which Palestinian militants view as their arch-enemies. "We would not have any alternative but to invest there, to entrench there, to deploy more soldiers there."
The militant Islamic Hamas and Yasser Arafat's Fatah may be close to curbing their deadly strikes against civilians in Israel, but with signs of early elections in the Jewish state and a hawkish image to burnish, will - or can - Ariel Sharon rise to the diplomatic challenge of a calming trend?
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As Sharon dangled the possibility of early elections - as soon as January, nearly a year in advance of a scheduled poll - the lockstep degeneration of Israeli-Palestinian violence entered a possible new phase this week, as Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Organization's central Fatah faction, and 11 other Palestinian groups weighed a draft document which could spell a cessation of terror attacks in Israeli cities.
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Keen to shore up his credentials as a tough leader amid polls showing a slide in his popular support, rightist Likud leader Sharon has dismissed as a trick" recent peace feelers, including a plan for a trial IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a prelude to possible further pull-outs conditioned on a drop in Palestinian attacks.
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But Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of the center-left Labor held out hope that Hamas and Fatah might find common ground in reversing what he called a slide in the furtherance of the cause of eventual Palestinian statehood. After years of terror attacks, "The Palestinians are losing across a very broad front, they are on the threshold of de-legitimization by the United States, the gravest of matters."
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If Hamas consents to such an understanding, "I believe we are speaking of a total halt to attacks on civilians within the state of Israel," said Arab MK and ex-senior Arafat advisor Ahmed Tibi. He said the powerful Islamic organization could give its answer in a matter of days.
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The draft document coincided with an unprcedented paroxysm of internal criticism within Arafat's Palestinian Authority. In recent days, ranking Palestinian officials have begun speaking out against the institution of the Authority itself. West Bank and Gaza natives like Fatah lawmaker Fares Kadura have proposed dismantling the PA altogether, arguing that Arafat's current leadership lineup - which led the PLO from the Palestinian diaspora until signing peace deals with Israel in 1993-4 - placed self-perpetuation over the plight of their hard-hit constituents. The calls for breaking up the PA came from quarters as high-profile as Hanan Ashrawi, long a prominent spokeswoman for the Authority.
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Asked when Hamas might signal its agreement to the document, Tibi told Army Radio: "They are closer than they have ever been in the past." He said that Hamas had helped word the document, "and I believe it is a matter of days until they will give their answer regarding the substance."
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The draft document includes a clause endorsing Palestinian independence within the 1967 borders, an apparent departure for Hamas, which does not recognize Israel and is explicitly dedicated to an Islamic Palestine encompassing the borders of present-day Israel as well as the territories. |
