News and Views

Palestinians' goals depend on the world putting pressure on new cabinet to uphold all its standards

by David Makovsky
Newsday - Jan. 24, 2006

In the West Bank, there is definite excitement in the air. Campaign posters are festooned everywhere in Ramallah in advance of tomorrow's Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Hamas is contesting these elections for the first time, and all polls point to the organization running very strongly. On a recent visit to Ramallah, I was told that Hamas would win anywhere from a third to 45 percent of the votes and that the mainstream Fatah would eke out a victory with the help of smaller parties. Whatever the outcome, it seems distinctly likely that these elections will be seen as a sign of strength for the Islamic radical movement, whose signature policies range from supporting suicide bombings and calling for the destruction of Israel to providing social services and opposition to corruption.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar has indicated he wants Hamas to join the Palestinian Authority's cabinet. At the same time, he has made clear that his group's ideology remains fixed. On Palestinian TV on Jan. 17, he said, "We do not recognize the Israeli enemy, nor his right to be our neighbor, nor to stay (on the land), nor his ownership of any inch of land. . . . We are interested in restoring our full rights to return all the people of Palestine to the land of Palestine. Our principles are clear: Palestine is a land of Waqf (Islamic trust), which can not be given up."

The danger of a Sharon exit

by Dennis Ross
USA Today - Jan. 23, 2006

As it has become increasingly clear that Ariel Sharon will never be able to resume his duties as Israel's prime minister after suffering a massive stroke, the country has prepared to move on. But life after Sharon is not so simple, particularly as Palestinians prepare to hold elections Wednesday when Hamas, the Islamist terrorist organization, is poised to do well.

For the past two years, Sharon has been the driver of developments between Israelis and Palestinians. It was Sharon who first announced a policy of disengagement from the Palestinians. It was Sharon who then took this principle and carried out Israel's subsequent withdrawal from Gaza and the dismantling of settlements there. Finally, it was Sharon who left Likud, which he helped found, and set the stage for elections as the head of a new centrist party, Kadima.

In each case, the United States, the international community and the Palestinians have waited to respond to his initiatives and timing. In effect, Sharon created a luxury for others to be passive and reactive because he shaped reality.

For its part, the Bush administration supported his initiatives and tried to manage the consequences of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. As Sharon sought to redefine Israeli politics and govern with a new centrist consensus, the administration was again supportive and ready to respond to what it anticipated would be a new Sharon initiative after the Israeli elections.

The Palestinians' Crisis of Leadership

by Aaron David Miller
Washington Post - Jan. 24, 2006

More than 50 years after its creation, the Palestinian national movement -- in both its secular and Islamic guises -- lacks a coherent strategy and the means to realize Palestinian national aspirations. No matter what the outcome of tomorrow's elections, this will remain the central challenge confronting Palestinians and their politics.

At some point in the history of any national movement, its leaders (and followers) must be judged by their ability to carry out the goals they set for themselves. It is true that these goals can evolve over time, in some cases tailored by circumstances, in a more pragmatic direction. In the 1960s the Palestine Liberation Organization preached the destruction of Israel. In the 1970s it endorsed a secular democratic state for Arabs and Jews. In the 1980s and 1990s, Palestinians shifted -- under pressure, to be sure -- to a two-state solution.

Most Palestinians have grudgingly come to back a Palestinian state alongside Israel, provided it is based on 1967 borders, has its capital in East Jerusalem and offers a resolution to the refugee problem that includes some kind of right of return.

Sadly, however, history has no rewind button, and if such a solution was ever possible, it certainly seems unlikely now. Ariel Sharon had the power to move toward a conflict-ending solution, but he had no incentive to do so -- nor will his successors. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has the incentive but lacks the power. In any case, unilateral action, not bilateral negotiations, seems to rule the day and will probably be the course chosen by Sharon's successor.

The Palestinians deserve a large share of the responsibility for their tragic predicament. Simply put, their leaders have failed to outline a coherent strategy, to devise effective tactics or to condition their public for compromise. Instead, a political culture of grievance and avoidance of responsibility has been the Palestinians' operating software.

'Defensible borders are key to Israel's safety

by Rafael D. Frankel
Jerusalem Post - Jan. 24, 2006

To defend itself against future threats, Israel must retain control of the Jordan Valley and all West Bank border crossings in any future arrangement - whether negotiated or initiated unilaterally - that defines the state's borders, a panel comprised mainly of former military men told the Herzliya Conference Monday.

The panel's presentation on "defensible borders" stressed that Israel must assume there will be global and local threats that stretch decades into the future, and should not draw borders that compromise Israel's ability to defend itself from a ground- or air-based attack.

"People talk about history, relations, water - but only some people think about the day after [borders are drawn] and how Israel will find itself in a defensible position," said Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ya'acov Amidor, the head of the Defensible Borders project at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

While considerations such as relations with the Palestinians, demography and history were important in defining borders, Amidor argued that the 1993 Oslo Accords went too far in compromising Israel's security in hopes for peace, adding that one like it should not rise again.

Hamas leaders praise jihad and renew calls to fight Israel

Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, will never be dismantled, as Israel and the US-backed road map peace plan demand, he said.  ''They will remain, they will grow, they will be armed more and more until the complete liberation of all Palestine," he said, stressing that Palestine includes not just the West Bank and Gaza Strip that Israel occupied in 1967, but all of Israel as well.
by Anne Barnard
Boston Globe - Jan. 24, 2006

Hamas leaders yesterday concluded their maiden political campaign with a defiant embrace of the militant group's core tenets, vowing to continue their armed struggle until Palestinians rule what is now Israel, denouncing all economic ties with the Jewish state, and declaring peace negotiations ''a failed process."

As Hamas surged in the polls in recent days to a virtual dead heat with the front-running Fatah party in tomorrow's elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, some Hamas leaders had floated more conciliatory ideas to attract broader support, including a new willingness to consider talking to Israel.

But leaders of Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, staged a counteroffensive, declaring that Hamas's belated plunge into the political arena proves that Fatah's more pragmatic approach to Israel is the right one.

So Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, struck back in the campaign's final days, playing to Hamas's political base in the destitute Gaza neighborhoods and refugee camps that have supplied many Hamas suicide attackers and that revere them as martyrs. Before crowds of thousands, he and other candidates went out of their way to deny they would ever give up their insistence on the destruction of Israel and the right to armed struggle.

''We are entering the legislative council to make it a project of resistance," he told a cheering crowd last night in the Zeitoun neighborhood, adding, in a jab at Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, ''Do you want to abandon the program of sacrifice and jihad for the program of fancy cars and big salaries?"

We will not talk to a terrorist Hamas, says Blair

The Times - UK
Jan. 23, 2006

Britain will not deal with a Palestinian government containing Hamas members unless the militant group renounces violence, Tony Blair said today.

Speaking on the last day of campaigning before the Palestinian parliamentary elections on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said that Hamas, which is expected to do well in its first ever elections, must abandon violence to come to the negotiating table.

"It is very difficult for us to be in the position of negotiating or talking to Hamas unless there’s a very clear renunciation of terrorism," said Mr Blair at his monthly press conference today.

Rice says US has problems dealing with Hamas

Reuters
Jan. 23, 2006

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday Washington would have practical problems dealing with Hamas after the Palestinian election because of its U.S. classification as a "terrorist" group.

Asked whether the United States could work with Hamas if it makes a strong showing in this week's Palestinian election, Rice said there were problems because the Islamic group did not recognize Israel and had not renounced violence.

"In addition to the fact that the United States won't change its policies toward Hamas, the practical problem is that the (current) Palestinian leadership in the roadmap is committed to a renunciation of violence, committed to dismantling terrorist organizations, committed to a peaceful road," said Rice.

She said any discussions the United States had with a new government would have to be with a Palestinian Authority which was committed to a "peaceful path".

"It is not possible to have, and I am paraphrasing here, one foot in terrorism and the other foot in politics. It simply does not work," said Rice.

In an apparent softening before the election, Hamas on Monday raised the possibility of future talks with Israel through a third party. Israel refuses to negotiate with Hamas and says the group must disarm and abandon a charter which calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Some U.S. diplomatic sources have said a big win for Hamas could prompt the United States to scale back contacts with the Palestinian Authority.

A senior State Department official said the United States would not deal directly with members of Hamas in a new government.

"Our position is simple, in order to be an effective partner for peace, the Palestinians have to accept the idea of the state of Israel and renounce violence. That is currently the position of the Palestinian government."

"We will not accept terror on any basis," he added.

Asked directly whether the U.S. would recognize a new Palestinian government that contained large numbers of Hamas members, he said: "Let's see what happens first."

U.S. to shun PA if Hamas is in coalition

by Aluf Benn
Ha'aretzJerusalem Post - Jan. 23, 2006

The American administration has promised Israel that the United States will not recognize any Palestinian government in which Hamas participates, government sources in Jerusalem said yesterday.

The sources said that American envoys who visited here about 10 days ago told Israeli officials that recognizing such a government would violate American law.

Israel has also received similar messages from Javier Solana, the European Union's top foreign policy official, and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, who visited Israel last week, the sources said.

Hamas: State in '67 borders is temporary solution

The Jerusalem Post
Jan. 22, 2006

Ismail Haniya, the top candidate on the Hamas list for Palestinian parliamentary elections, said Sunday that Hamas supports only as a temporary solution the establishment of a Palestinian states along the 1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital.

Haniya emphasized that Hamas does not recognize the existence of the State of Israel and maintains its vision of establishing a Palestinian state throughout all of the area west of the Jordan River.

He also reiterated that there is no chance that Hamas would voluntarily disarm as long as Israel exists, Israel Radio reported.

Hamas threatens to kidnap Israeli soldiers

UPI
Jan. 19, 2006

Hamas has threatened it will kidnap Israeli soldiers to swap for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told an election rally in the city of Khan Younes in south Gaza Wednesday night that his group believes that it has no other alternative than kidnapping Israeli troops to negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners.

"The issue of prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails is of utmost importance for Hamas and a main objective at the top of its agenda," al-Zahar said.

"We will have no rest until all prisoners are released unconditionally," he added.

Hamas will be participating for the first time in Palestinian legislative elections slated for Jan. 25. Its decision was seen as a landmark move to shift to politics at the expense of military action.

On possible negotiations with Israel, al-Zahar, one of Hamas' candidates in the elections, said his group will not negotiate with Israel and that the issue is not on its agenda.

"Hamas will not negotiate with Israeli occupiers and will not recognize Israel's appropriation of a single inch of our land," he said.

"Hamas will continue its program based on resistance after the collapse and failure of the Oslo peace accords with Israel," he added.

Al-Zahar underscored the urgent need to introduce reforms to Palestinian institutions and the political system. "We want a strong government, and ministries which serve the public with transparency and honesty and without bribes and mediation," he said.

Hamas is expected to score well in the general elections in view of its high performance in municipal polls last year, challenging the supremacy of the Fatah movement, the backbone of the Palestinian Authority.