Dear Friend,
It is really very important that Hamas be brought into the fold of the PLO. The following article (Karl Vick in TIME magazine), suggests that Hamas may be moderating its position of vowing violent opposition to the Israeli state. Israel will continue to argue that Hamas has not and will not change, but wants to "destroy" Israel.
As long as the Palestinians are divided between two factions, no significant "negotiations" can take place. Hamas (Gaza authority) must be party to any agreement, or it will not be worth the paper it's printed on.
Israel boosted Hamas by finally agreeing to terms for the release of Gilad Shalit, the captive Israeli soldier.
Read on. By the way, EMBRACING ISRAEL/PALESTINE, the new book by Rabbi Michael Lerner, is a must read. From his base in psychology, and his ministry in Jerusalem for many years, Mr. Lerner shows a correspondence between PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and the Israeli (Holocaust) psyche, and that internal healing and transformation must take place for any true dealing with "the other" to happen. More on this book later. JRK
Hamas Edges Closer to the Mainstream: Agreeing
to Noviolence, Opening the Door to Recognizing Israel
Monday, November 28, 2011
By Karl Vick
The leaders of the two biggest Palestinian parties met in Cairo on Thanksgiving, and just going by the
headlines afterward, you'd have thought nothing had happened. "Palestinians talk unity, no sign of progress,"
said Reuters. AP: "Palestinian rivals talk, but fail to resolve rifts." But read the stories, and it becomes clear
that a great deal is going on, with immense implications for the future of peace talks with Israel.
Israel's government dismissed the meeting with a wave of the terrorist card. Hamas is regarded by the West
and Israel as first and foremost a terrorist organization, and so Mark Regev, who speaks for prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, framed the reconciliation as something that can only contaminate the pacifist
credentials of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah party chief widely known as Abu
Mazen:"The closer Abu Mazen gets to Hamas," Regev said, "the farther he moves away from peace."
But what if Abbas is holding still, and Hamas is moving closer to Abbas? That's what's been happening, from
nearly all appearances, for the last two or three years, and everything coming out of the Cairo meeting points
in the same direction. The head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, and Abbas spoke for two hours, Abbas in the big
chair, Meshaal on the couch with two others. Afterwards both met the cameras smiling. "There are no
differences between us now," Abbas said. Mashaal went with: "We have opened a new page of partnership."
And on whose terms? Hamas stands for resistance, its formal name being the Islamic Resistance Movement.
But in the Gaza Strip where it governs, Hamas has largely enforced a truce with Israel since January 2009.
And in Cairo it signed a paper committing itself to "popular resistance" against the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian territories. That's "popular" in contrast to "violent" or "military" resistance. We're talking marches
here. Chanting and signs, not booby traps or suicide bombs.
"Every people has the right to fight against occupation in every way, with weapons or otherwise. But at the
moment, we want to cooperate with the popular resistance," Meshaal told AFP. "We believe in armed
resistance but popular resistance is a program which is common to all the factions."
What's going on here? For one thing, Abbas appears to have coaxed his party's militant rival into his fold.
""This is my assessment," says Omar Shaban, the Gaza economist and civil society leader who runs
Pal-Think, a think tank. "Abu Mazen has succeeded in bringing them one step closer to his program. I think
the election will be the real test for the whole process."
And how. Hamas and Fatah, factions that four years ago were engaged in civil war as Hamas's militia drove
Fatah's militia out of Gaza, now live in fear not of each other, but of the Palestinian people. The Arab Spring
has transformed the political dynamic -- something Meshaal said out loud to AFP. Both Fatah and Hamas
know they are disappointments to the people. The least they can do is stop fighting each other, the foremost
demand of the public, and the reason both leaders emerged from their closed meeting saying, in so many
words, "Look! Look! We really are reconciling! Just as we promised!" If Hamas needed any extra incentive,
it's available in the excruciating collapse of Syria, where Meshaal keeps his office. If Fatah needed any extra
incentive, it's available in the UN Security Council report on the application for Palestinian statehood, which
noted that the applicant, Abbas' Palestinian Authority, does not even control the Gaza Strip, surely a
minimum requirement of sovereignty.
Actual reunification of the West Bank and Gaza will come with the unity government of technocrats the two
factions promised in May, when their reconciliation was formally declared. That placeholder government still
has yet to be announced -- placeholder, that is, pending spring 2012 elections that produce a new legislature
and president -- but at last there's evidence of progress. The point of conflict had been who would serve as
prime minister. Fatah insisted on Salam Fayyad, a favorite of the West and a technocrat's technocrat who
has held the job on the West Bank for four years. Hamas wanted Fayyad out. A couple of week ago, after
months of stalemate, he agreed to go. But neither side is rushing him because he remains the West's trusted
conduit for hundreds of millions in foreign aid. That aid covers the salaries of government workers both in the
West Bank and Gaza -- where Fatah continues to pay 70,000 employees even though Hamas controls the
government. The PA has by far the biggest payroll in the Palestinian territories, a donor economy if ever there
was one. And however they may differ on Fayyad, both Fatah and Hamas want to see people get paid,
because, again, who do they fear most?
Quite possibly biggest news out of Cairo was deep in the fine print: Efforts are under way to bring Hamas into
the PLO, or Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella for all Palestinian factions. The PLO is the one
"brand" that still resonates with ordinary Palestinians, and Hamas has wanted to join it since at least 2005. If
Hamas finally gets in, the implications would appear to be immense. It would mean agreeing to the positions
and agreements the PLO has already made. This includes recognizing Israel, and renouncing terror -- two
things Hamas has never been willing to do. "Yes, when they are in they have to agree to the political program
of the PLO," says Shaban. "This will take time." But should it occur, it would complete Hamas' move toward
the center, and open the door to the international recognition craved by many in the organization.
The biggest question out of Cairo was what the PLO will look like in a few months. An effort to "reform" the
body was announced along with the move to bring Hamas on board. The first meeting was set for Dec. 22.
Reform is something Palestinian analysts call overdue, citing the elderly -- some say "sclerotic" --
composition of the PLO's executive committee. But it makes for yet one more piece to watch on a chess
board where the pieces are moving as quickly as events. The meeting, after all, was in Cairo.
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To view this article online, please go to:
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/11/27/hamas-edges-closer-to-the-mainstream-agreeing-to-nonviolence
-opening-the-door-to-recognizing-israel/?xid=gonewsedit
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