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Al-Ahram On Sharm El-Sheikh

by Al-Ahram Weekly (reposted)
In "New era?" Dina Ezzat finds more than enough cause for caution behind the expressions of optimism at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit. In "New dawn all over again" Graham Usher writes that the ceasefire agreed at Sharm El-Sheikh will only endure if there is action on Israel's other policies in the occupied territories. In "Prisoners hold the key" Khaled Amayreh reports that Palestinian factions, the real makers or breakers of the truce declared in Sharm El-Sheikh, are setting their conditions in Gaza.
New era?
Behind the expressions of optimism at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit Dina Ezzat finds more than enough cause for caution

Next week, maybe as early as Sunday, a joint Palestinian-Israeli security/negotiation committee will convene in Ramallah and Jerusalem to discuss a long list of Israeli security demands, including the blocking of tunnels connecting Gaza with Rafah and the disarmament of Palestinian Islamist factions. The joint Palestinian-Israeli meetings will also review a list of the names of Palestinian prisoners the Palestinian Authority still hopes Israel will release.

Simultaneously, Egypt's own security delegation will continue efforts to upgrade the Palestinian security apparatus, while Jordan will seek to upgrade its own security assistance to the PA in an attempt to abort any attack against Israeli targets.

This security-oriented approach to the Palestinian- Israeli file is the result of this week's Sharm El- Sheikh Arab-Israeli summit that brought President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah, as mediators, together with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as negotiators.

Each of the four found reasons for optimism. For Egypt and Jordan the nightmare of the past four years, during which the leaders of both countries have had to wake up every morning to reports of Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people and the demonstrations of anger they inevitably provoke on the Egyptian and Jordanian street, may be coming to an end.

For the Palestinians there was hope of improvement on the ground as the international community promised economic support to improve the living standards of Palestinians in return for a commitment to demilitarise the Intifada and neutralise resistance operations by the Palestinian factions.

For the Israelis, the most cautious in expressing hope -- Sharon described the summit as a "very fragile chance" -- Sharm El-Sheikh marked the real beginning of the post Arafat era and a new political process based on Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan rather than the roadmap.

To judge by the language expressed by the three speeches made in the one public 30-minute session of the summit, the four parties might well conceive their groundbreaking meeting as a first step; it is by no means clear, however, that they are speaking of the same road.

In the joint Egyptian-Jordanian speech read by President Hosni Mubarak hope was expressed that the Sharm El-Sheikh summit would lead the way to "alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people and to rebuilding the Palestinian economy", with the aim of securing the smooth and prompt implementation of the unilateral disengagement plan "as a first step towards the implementation of the roadmap".

Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/729/fr1.htm
by Al-Ahram Weekly (reposted)
The ceasefire agreed at Sharm El-Sheikh will only endure if there is action on Israel's other policies in the occupied territories, writes Graham Usher in Jerusalem

We have of course been here before. At the Aqaba summit in Jordan in June 2003 -- staged to launch the roadmap "towards peace" -- Mahmoud Abbas (then Palestinian prime minister) and Ariel Sharon smiled, shook hands, talked of a "new era" and agreed an end to "terrorism against Israelis wherever they might be". Three months later Abbas had resigned, peace imploded and the roadmap lay shredded by Israeli assassinations and Palestinian suicide bombings. Is there any hope that the Sharm El-Sheikh declarations will prove more durable?

The short answer is yes, probably, and not just because Yasser Arafat is no more and Abbas is president. For Palestinians the crucial difference between the two summits is that this time the ceasefire or "calm" is mutual. "We agreed that all Palestinians will stop all acts of violence against all Israelis everywhere and, at the same time, Israel will cease all its military activity against all Palestinians everywhere," said Sharon, at Sharm El-Sheikh.

Will this be enough for the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to turn their current de facto ceasefire into a formal cessation of hostilities? Initial responses were of conditional rejection. The Sharm El-Sheikh summit "did not achieve anything. From our people's interests, the Israeli position did not change," said Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhari. Still, "we are going to listen to Abbas when he returns. We are going to sit down with him, and then we are going to declare our position."

In talks prior to the summit, the Islamists insisted any official truce hinged on a "guaranteed" Israeli commitment to end its policies of assassination and incursions and release Palestinian prisoners. Sharon's pledge means just this, says Palestinian Authority and Israeli sources, though Hamas will no doubt be watching Israel's actions on the ground and how many Hamas men and women will be included in the releases.

Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/729/fo1.htm
by Al-Ahram Weekly (reposted)
Palestinian factions, the real makers or breakers of the truce declared in Sharm El-Sheikh, are setting their conditions in Gaza, Khaled Amayreh reports

The ultimate success of the Sharm El- Sheikh summit is likely to hinge on Israel's willingness to release thousands of Palestinian resistance and political detainees.

This is the message the leaders of the various Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, have been communicating to an Egyptian security delegation now visiting the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian delegation has been trying to obtain from the Palestinian factions a commitment to a more durable ceasefire with Israel.

The delegate reportedly promised that Egypt would seek to put up a "comprehensive deal" including the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinians, however, are sceptical, given Israel's notorious intransigence on the matter of Palestinian prisoners, hundreds of whom have been languishing in Israeli detention centres for over two decades.

Shortly after the announcement of the ceasefire, Hamas was adamant about making clear their position regarding the outcome of the summit. "The talk about what the leader of the Palestinian Authority called a cessation of acts of violence is not binding on the resistance because this is a unilateral stance and was not the outcome of an intra-Palestinian dialogue as has been agreed previously," Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, told the Associated Press.

Hamas, nonetheless, agreed to give the ceasefire "a chance" pending the "revelation of Israeli intentions".

However, the Islamic resistance movement has renewed its warning that it will not agree to an "open-ended ceasefire" if Israel refuses to reciprocate and meet Palestinian conditions.

"We told our Egyptian brothers that we will observe a de facto ceasefire for a period of time pending the unmasking of the Israeli position on the paramount issue of the prisoners," said Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas's political leader in Gaza, following his meeting with the Egyptian delegation in Gaza on Monday night.

Zahar also warned against a return to the "Oslo-style games of procrastination and equivocation".

"I would like to remind everybody that the problem in this part of the world is this Satanic Zionist occupation. If the world does not see to it that the occupation comes to an end, then no ceasefire will hold."

According to Hamas spokesman in the West Bank, Hassan Youssef, the movement has told the Egyptian delegation that Hamas will not agree to an open-ended ceasefire unless Israel is willing to free Palestinian prisoners.

"We told them Israel must end its criminal incursions and assassination and, above all, release our prisoners. These are not only Hamas's demands. These are the demands of all Palestinian factions and the Palestinian masses at large."

He added, "[This] is not us versus Mahmoud Abbas; it is rather us versus Israel; because if the international community is unable to get [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon to free our POWs and detainees, it will not be able to get him to end the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem without which no peace can be reached."

Israel has signalled a willingness to "suspend" assassinations of Palestinian activists and leaders and halt military incursions into Palestinian areas.

However, the Israeli government has indicated that no more than 900 Palestinian prisoners, out of the estimated 9,000 political and resistance prisoners, now detained by Israel, will be freed.

Read More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/729/fo5.htm
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