Ayoon Wa Azan ('The root of the conflict')

It appears that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has drank a “courage potion,” as he is pressing ahead with reconciliation with Hamas, and wants to form a government of national unity that would draft a law for the elections due three months after a cabinet is formed. Abbas is steadfast and resolved about seeing this through, even after US President Barack Obama asked him in Ramallah to stop efforts for reconciliation with Hamas, a request echoed later by US Secretary of State John Kerry. I had phoned President Abbas in Amman from Beirut to hear his opinion, and found that his position on reconciliation has not changed, despite US pressure. This means that the ball now is in Hamas’s court, as the English-language saying goes. Hamas has declared that it seeks reconciliation, but what matters is for this to be put into practice. I understood from well-informed Palestinian sources, other than President Abbas, that the American side has made stopping reconciliation attempts a condition for backing the resumption of peace talks and for financial assistance to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). On the other hand, Arab foreign ministers, on the sidelines of the Baghdad summit, had decided to establish a financial safety net for the PNA worth $100 million per month. However, Saudi Arabia remains the only country to have fulfilled its part of the aid package. I want to pause here to note that Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country that has delivered on all the promises it made to the Palestinians. I had heard this time and time again from the late Yasser Arafat, and I hope that any reader who is able to do so would ask President Abbas about his experience with Arab promises. President Abbas told me that he would prefer a government of both Fatah and Hamas to oversee the elections. He said that if Hamas wins, it can form the next government, and if it loses, then it can become the opposition party. He also told me that if reconciliation efforts do not bear fruit, he will form the government that he thinks is appropriate. According to what I heard from Palestinian sources that I trust completely, there is no dispute between President Abbas and the outgoing Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The sources said that the rumors about disputes came from some members of Fatah’s central committee, who perhaps aspired to succeed Dr. Fayyad. I heard that some nominated Mohammad Mustafa, head of the Palestinian Investment Fund, to lead the new government, but my sources said that this was unlikely and the same goes for any member of the central committee. Instead, my sources believed it likely that Fayyad, who is now leading a caretaker government, would return as premier if President Abbas himself does not lead a government of independents to hold the legislative and presidential elections, in implementation of the agreement signed in Doha last year. I call on Hamas to respond to the president’s courageous position in kind. Indeed, President Abbas, with his attitudes on the reconciliation, is putting the PNA at risk of losing US aid, and is also encouraging Israel to continue to block the transfer of the taxes it collects on behalf of the PNA, as it had done more than once in the past. I trust the intentions of Barack Obama and John Kerry, but I have zero trust in the Israeli side, where there is a racist occupation government that plots with settlers to steal Palestinian homes on a near-daily basis. The US Secretary of State is pushing for a comprehensive plan that would include developing major commercial ventures in Palestinian cities, implemented by American companies, and which would create thousands of jobs and offer a lifeline to the ailing Palestinian economy. Another proposal included in the plan would see control of the crossings between the Palestinians and Israel handed over to Palestinian security forces, in the manner seen with the old Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The US plan lays the foundation for economic peace, which would subsequently lead to a political peace process. But I'm not optimistic. On the Israeli side, Minister of Economy and Trade Naphtali Bennett proposed a bill calling for a referendum on any future agreement with the Palestinians, which was endorsed by the Minister of Industry Yair Lapid, although the latter supports the two-state solution unlike the American immigrant Bennett. Then there is the Israeli terrorist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said, almost word for word, that the root of the conflict with the Palestinians is not territorial, but rather it is the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. President Abbas will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and neither will Hamas. The Palestinian president's position is that Israel could describe itself as a Jewish state, but that the Palestinians would not. I say that no peace is possible with the ruling gang in Israel, and that all of Israel is squatting on the lands of the state of Palestine. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.