Gaza: A conditional calm

Twelve Palestinian factions met with Egypt's General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo Tuesday and Wednesday and agreed, despite expressing reservations, to an initiative by Cairo to maintain a state of "calm" in Gaza. Suleiman is expected to take this initiative, now backed "conditionally" by all the Palestinian factions, to Tel Aviv by Sunday or Monday. Should Israel accept it, the calm, or ' tahdia ' in Arabic, will take effect.

Originally presented as a "factions' dialogue" similar to previous meetings hosted by Egyptian General Intelligence, this week's meetings didn't group the factions together and did not include either Fatah or Hamas.

"Why talk to each other in Cairo when we've already done that in Gaza," Jameel Al-Majdalawi of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) told Al-Ahram Weekly. Instead, each delegation met with Suleiman separately in a series of brief, to-the-point meetings focussed on the Egyptian proposal.

The Egyptian call for "calm" between Israel and the Palestinians envisages that it apply first in Gaza and then, after a period of six months, extend to the West Bank. This should coincide with the opening of the Egypt-Gaza and Gaza-Israel borders, closed for the last nine months as part of Israel's military and economic siege of the Strip.

More