The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government is contemplating a number of political measures that would expose Israel as the party that impedes peace efforts reliable sources in Gaza told “PIC.”
The measures might include a declaration containing a willingness to give a conditional recognition of Israel’s political reality as well as okaying political contacts with “concerned international players” and “even with Israel .”
The sources which are close to decision-makers in Hamas also intimated that “intensive multi-lateral contacts” would take place outside Palestine for the purpose of “clarifying the Palestinian position and proving to the international community that the real problem lies squarely in Israel’s refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 war.”
Earlier this month Hamas’s Damascus-based politburo chief Khalid Masha’al said the movement recognized “the political reality” known as Israel .
He added however that Hamas like most Palestinians wouldn’t recognize any “moral legitimacy” of the Israeli state on the ground that a step as such would amount to accepting the “Zionist narrative.”
However all Hamas leaders have reasserted the impossibility of “recognizing Israel’s moral legitimacy” because “Israel has no moral legitimacy.”
On Monday Prime Minister’s political advisor Ahmed Yousuf pointed out that inter-factional talks were succeeding in “solidifying the overall Palestinian stance” vis-à-vis Israel.
“I think we have succeeded in formulating a united Palestinian position as to how we should relate to any expected reactivation of the political process.”
Yousuf didn’t give further details but other sources who demanded anonymity suggested that Hamas and Fatah were about to reach a concordance on two central issues: First that any recognition of Israel would have to be conditional on a reciprocal Israeli recognition of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state on 100% of the West Bank Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
And Second that there should be no return to the “modalities of the Oslo process” where Israel keeps up stealing Palestinian land and building Jewish-only colonies under the rubric of a peace process that is void of substance.
Fatah reportedly has generally accepted the two proposals which obligates the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority leadership to effectively abandon the stalled American-backed “roadmap.”
President Abbas and other PA officials have of late made a plethora of statements stressing the need to go for the “end-game” now.
According to former Palestinian minister Ghassan al-Khatib Palestinian insistence on going for the “end-game” would be a smart step that could enhance the overall Palestinian stance.
“This would help us throw the ball into the Israeli court and presumably force Israel to stop creating facts on the ground” said Khatib alluding to the intensive building of Jewish settlements.
The current Israeli government has been pressing and pressuring the Bush Administration to stick to the “roadmap” ostensibly lest Israel be forced to face the cardinal issues of the conflict with the Palestinians including Jerusalem the settlements and the right of return for millions of Palestinians uprooted and expelled from their homes when Israel was created in 1948.
Hamas has reacted satisfactorily to statements made by Abbas in which he said Palestinians wouldn’t allow Israel to drag them into a “peace process that has a beginning but has no end.”
The movement has also lauded Abbas’s assertion that Israel must leave 100% of the Occupied territories including E. Jerusalem and resolve the plight of the refugees pursuant to UN resolution no. 194.
