US Secretary of State John Kerry stated after his Sunday night phone call to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) that the Obama administration would judge the Palestinian unity government, due to be sworn in Monday afternoon, June 2, by its deeds. Recognition would depend on the new regime recognizing Israel, upholding previously-signed Palestinian international undertakings and abstaining from terrorism and other violence.
Kerry must realize, after a year of being messed about in an abortive peace process, that Abu Mazen is a chameleon, apt to trot out different words and decisions as the moment takes him.
By its reconciliation with Abbas’ Fatah, this extremist Islamic group gains respect in Tehran and Moscow, after losing its allies in Damascus and Cairo, as well qualifying for international legitimacy without compromising its basic tenets and practices.
Binyamin Netanyahu weighs his Palestinian optionsUS Secretary of State John Kerry stated after his Sunday night phone call to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) that the Obama administration would judge the Palestinian unity government, due to be sworn in Monday afternoon, June 2, by its deeds. Recognition would depend on the new regime recognizing Israel, upholding previously-signed Palestinian international undertakings and abstaining from terrorism and other violence.
Abbas sidestepped those commitments by assuring the Secretary that the new Palestinian ministers were appointed by him and they would conform with his wishes and policies.
Kerry must realize, after a year of being messed about in an abortive peace process, that Abu Mazen is a chameleon, apt to trot out different words and decisions as the moment takes him.
But how to explain the acceptance of this sliding scale by the Secretary of State and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and their equivocations in the face of the most outrageous Palestinian pretences?
DEBKAfile offers three possible explanations for their meekness:
1. John Kerry has chosen to put a brave face on the crash of his Middle East initiatives in late April and carry on as though his efforts may yet bring Israel and the Palestinians together for a peace accord – even though it is clear to the region and even Washington that the process is dead.
2. Netanyahu Sunday issued a dramatic call to the world not to recognize the new Palestinian unity government. “Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks Israel’s destruction,” he said. “Such a government would not bolster peace but strengthen terror.” He added later that he couldn’t understand how when terrorism raised its head in Europe, in the form of the vile murders at the Brussels Jewish Museum, there were European leaders who had friendly words for the Palestinian terrorists, Hamas.
The same night, another Palestinian rocket landed on the Israeli side of the Gaza border.
Later, the prime minister was quoted as telling the security cabinet that he had been assured that Washington would not extend “immediate” recognition to the new Palestinian government.
This phrasing betrayed Netanyahu’s awareness that the Obama administration did not propose to put up a fight against dialogue with Hamas, notwithstanding its terrorist record.
Therefore, while condemning the Palestinian government of reconciliation and promising to cut off ties, the Israeli prime minister has not suspended the transfer of funds to Ramallah or abandoned cooperation with Palestinian security services.
And so, as Abu Mazen’s new government goes forward, Israel’s high rhetoric will lose its resonance.
3. DEBKAfile’s Washington and Jerusalem sources report that Washington did inform Jerusalem that it stands by a written US commitment not to recognize or cooperate with a Palestinian regime which has a Hamas component. It was first given in May 2011 by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and endorsed by her successor John Kerry at the outset of Israel-Palestinian peace talks last year.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu can’t avoid seeing that the Obama administration is looking for a way to wriggle out of this pledge.
Hamas too, had to grapple with Abu Mazen’s prevarications. It did so by staging a crisis every few hours up to the last minute before the final installment of the new government at 1 o’clock Monday.
The union, if it finally comes to be, will stand on shaky legs and be only skin deep.
Hamas has no intention of giving up its control of the Gaza Strip and subsuming its rule into the joint government, or of giving up its autonomous military arm, the Ezz e-Din Al-Qassam.
Even Palestinian daydreamers can’t imagine Hamas and Fatah agreeing on conditions for holding free elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a new parliament and president to succeed Abbas.
Therefore, John Kerry, Binyamin Netanyahu, Abu Mazen and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh are all playing along with a political game, although even play-acting may have consequences when politicians are on the stage.
One is the postponement of the agonizing decisions the Israeli and Palestinian leaders would have been compelled to make for a peace accord. But the big winner is Hamas - which is why it is willing to put up with a lot – although it dug in its feet at the last moment over the office of Palestinian prisoners and demanded that all Palestinian security agencies declare war on “the Zionists.”
By its reconciliation with Abbas’ Fatah, this extremist Islamic group gains respect in Tehran and Moscow, after losing its allies in Damascus and Cairo, as well qualifying for international legitimacy without compromising its basic tenets and practices.
No comments:
Post a Comment