Posted on 05/25/2006 6:47:11 PM PDT by blam
Hamas may recognise Israel's right to exist
By Tim Butcher in Gaza City
(Filed: 26/05/2006)
Signs of a breakthrough in the stand-off between the international community and Hamas emerged last night after the Islamist movement prepared to moderate its hostility towards Israel.
While weeks of negotiations will be needed to confirm the policy shift, it raised the hope of a new era in the Middle East and even a return to peace negotiations aimed at ending decades of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
A masked gunman from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
The shift came as Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president, sought a way to break the impasse caused when Hamas unexpectedly won control in the Palestinian elections in January.
Mr Abbas, trying to persuade Hamas to drop its traditional refusal to accept Israel's right to exist, seized on a seven-page document written inside an Israeli prison by Palestinian political prisoners.
The prisoners represent not just Hamas, but all major factions, including Mr Abbas's own Fatah movement and Islamic Jihad.
It was debated inside high-security cells and drawn up under the eyes of prison guards during exercise periods.
In parts verbose and repetitive, the document nevertheless implies an acceptance of the right of Israel by claiming a Palestinian homeland only on land occupied by Israel in 1967 - Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
If he could persuade the Hamas leadership to accept the 18-point prison accord it would mean the movement had dropped its original claim on all the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.
Mr Abbas gave the parties 10 days to accept the document as a common platform, and said he would call a referendum if they failed to do so.
He is understood to have won tacit agreement for the plan from the Hamas leadership before unveiling it during a Palestinian national unity summit held yesterday to try to halt the slide towards civil war.
Twelve Palestinians were wounded yesterday in Gaza in clashes between Fatah and Hamas, following the deaths of 10 people in recent weeks.
Mr Abbas, widely seen as a grey figure, spoke with uncharacteristic vigour, cracking jokes, stabbing his finger and haranguing his audience on the urgency of setting aside political differences.
"The situation is getting more dangerous," he said.
"The whole nation is in danger. We can't wait for the rest of our lives."
With Israel refusing to allow Hamas MPs to travel from Gaza to the West Bank to see Mr Abbas in the flesh, his words were relayed by a live video-link to a crowded assembly room in Gaza City.
But it was as he wound up his 46-minute address that he made his crucial announcement, stating that the prison accord was the only way to break the impasse and urging all factions to adopt it within 10 days.
Hamas said it would accept the result of any referendum and pollsters suggested that the Palestinian electorate would back the prison accord if it went that far.
While Hamas has not explicitly supported the prison accord, it is clear that the leadership is willing to consider a Palestinian state only on the land taken by Israel in the 1967 war.
Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, said in a newspaper interview that Hamas could promise a long-term ceasefire to Israel in return for the 1967 territory.
Significantly, Mr Haniyeh did not reject Mr Abbas's initiative last night and other Hamas legislators seemed to suggest the prison accord was acceptable.
It is clear that both Mr Abbas and Hamas recognise that change is crucial to stop Israel from unilaterally annexing large chunks of the West Bank under the so-called Convergence Plan of Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister. Mr Olmert received tacit support for his unilateral plan from America this week during his four-day visit to Washington.
President George W Bush made clear a Hamas administration that rejects Israel was not a suitable negotiating partner, raising the nightmare scenario for Mr Abbas of America backing an Israeli unilateral annexation of the West Bank.
Mr Abbas will hope that if he can persuade Hamas to adopt the prison accord, America will stop Mr Olmert's unilateral plan in its tracks and force both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, back to the negotiating table.
Israel announced last night that it had authorised delivery of light weapons to Mr Abbas's personal guards following recent threats on his life.
I would think that was obvious. You can't destroy what doesn't exist!
They certainly will, at least publicly. Even terror regimes need to keep the lights and water on.
Weeks? It should take all of ten minutes to confirm a policy shift. What will take weeks is the whining and threatening that will ensure that Hamas gets the maximum bribe for this "policy shift" from those credulous enough to believe it sincere.
I wouldn't give a single tile of toilet paper for any "promise" from Hammas. The Koran allows them to lie if it facilitates the ultimate victory. Especially if they are lying to an "infidel". Israel and the West know this, but choose to keep up the self-defeating delusion that the PA is a partner for peace.
Now if we could just get the State Department and the Bush White House to recognize the same fact, that would be something.
How on earth anyone can seriously consider an offer of peace from a culture of people who crave the destruction of their neighbor, is beyond me.
I say; Let their Arab brothers in arms supply them with food, water, and money.
Untill they learn to behave and live like civilized human beings, they deserve no such respect or recognition, and will get none from me!!!
Oh, sure, the ROP permits members to lie to infidels.
LOL I was thinking the same thing.
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