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Hamas makes haste

by Al-Ahram Weekly (reposted)
Palestinians are expected to have a national unity government in place by 1 March, reports Khaled Amayreh from the West Bank
Worried about incessant American and Israeli plots to thwart the Mecca Agreement, Hamas is seeking to speed up the process of forming a national unity government in which the Islamic movement and Fatah will be the main coalition partners.

During the Saudi-brokered talks Hamas and Fatah agreed on 8 February to form a national unity government as part of the wider arrangements that ended the bloody showdown between the two groups which had pushed the Palestinians to the brink of civil war.

Palestinian sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Prime Minister-designate Ismael Haniya had asked "negotiating teams" to work "day and night" to facilitate the formation of the government.

Along with the rest of the Palestinian political class, Hamas is increasingly apprehensive that the Bush administration may be unwilling to allow the process to be completed without attempting to foment more problems, hence their determination to form the government as quickly as possible, before corrosive American efforts go too far.

Hamas leaders in both occupied Palestine and the Diaspora have vowed to "save and shield the government of national unity from foreign pressure". Damascus-based Hamas official Mahmoud Abu Marzuq, who describes the national government as "an important achievement based on partnership" has warned against "incessant American efforts" to "sow sedition" and "discord" not only in Palestine but throughout the Middle East.

Haniya publicly praised Abbas for resisting pressure to dissociate himself from the Mecca pact applied by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during their meeting in Jerusalem on Monday, 19 February.

"We stand alongside the president in rejecting American and Zionist efforts to create confusion and perplexity in the Palestinian arena," said Haniya.

Following the Jerusalem meeting Abbas reciprocated by phoning Haniya to brief him on what was said. The gesture was well-received by Hamas which has had some success in putting on a show of national unity in the face of Israeli-American attempts to scupper the Mecca agreement.

Abbas, while showing frustration with Washington's "misunderstanding" of the Mecca Agreement, shows no signs of bending to American pressure. Speaking in Amman following talks with King Abdullah II on Wednesday, Abbas said he was "completely convinced of the validity and correctness of the Mecca Agreement," adding that "Israel's understanding of the agreement is completely wrong."

More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/833/fr1.htm
by Al-Ahram Weekly (reposted)
As the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza approaches, the US must ensure justice for the Palestinians if it is to wrest its image from the dustbin, writes Jamil Dakwar*
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The US government has shown wisdom enough in the past to recognise when liberation movements designated as "terrorist organisations" make worthy partners for peace talks. The Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka are two good examples. Now the US has such an opportunity in the Middle East.

Last week, Palestinian Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas asked Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to form a unity government based on the Mecca Accord under which Hamas has committed itself "to respect international resolutions and the agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation." By accepting the Mecca Accord, which was brokered by America's ally in the region, Saudi Arabia, Hamas is de facto recognising Israel and is showing serious willingness to pursue negotiations to achieve peace in place of armed resistance.

Over the past year, the US and other Western countries have sided with Israel in suspending all contacts with the Hamas- controlled Palestinian Authority, including freezing foreign assistance to the Palestinian people. The result has been a deteriorating economic situation that has worsened the living conditions of the Palestinian civilian population and made the possibility of any political solution more distant than ever.

While European reaction to the Mecca Accord has been by and large positive, diverging from the Quartet's conditions, raising hopes of an end to the political impasse and the economic boycott on the Palestinian people, the US position has unfortunately remained unchanged.

Why does the Bush administration insist on rejecting any political pragmatism from the Palestinians and whose interests are being served by this attitude? Aside from the past few weeks of unfortunate deadly street fights between Hamas and Fatah which claimed more than 100 lives, Hamas has shown a great deal of national responsibility and political pragmatism, starting with its decision to run for national elections under the Oslo framework and ending with the Mecca Accord, despite mounting international and internal pressure that almost led to a coup d'état.

More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/833/op3.htm
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