Here comes the flood: Tsunami in Gaza, Celebration of peace in Jerusalem

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

By Gilad Atzmon

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced yesterday the decision of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas to meet bi-weekly with the US mediating. Indeed ‘great news for the Palestinians and the Israelis’.

More or less at the same time at least five Palestinians drowned in a “sewage Tsunami” when a water treatment reservoir burst, flooding Umm Naser, a village in the northern Gaza Strip.

While in a peaceful news conference in Jerusalem Rice once again said NO to the democratically elected Hamas referring to the PA chairman as a “partner for peace”, a Bedouin village in Gaza was submerged in sewage.

This devastating picture of total surreal detachment between the two events, between a meaningless political intercourse and a devastating destruction on the ground is the true reality of the Palestinian disaster. This reflects upon the zero Western political leadership’s commitment to humanist and ethical thinking, it reflects upon our abandonment of the Palestinian people, it is a reminder of our general negligence towards people who are mercilessly dispossessed for six decades, our blindness towards what seems to be a suffering with no end and no limit.

Rice called on regional Arab states to “participate actively in the peace process”. She welcomed as well the Saudi peace plan as “an example of such new thinking.” And I end up asking myself when was the last time Rice or the Saudi Crown family had been submerged in Sewage? Rice probably failed to realise that people, who happen to be flooded by ‘treated water’, want something slightly more significant than a mere ‘peace process’. Ms Rice, shouldn’t we better start with food? In case you didn’t realise, your embargo on the Hamas government has led to unprecedented starvation in Gaza. Some 80% of Gaza’s population relies upon WFP’s aid and on that from the UNRWA, the UN agency for refugees.

More or less by the time the US Secretary of State concluded that the two leaders would discuss a “political horizon,” it was clear that dozens of residents of Umm Naser were still unaccounted for.

By late afternoon, receding floodwaters had left a foul-smelling muck. Village children clung to wooden doors floating on the putrid waters. Rescuers were paddling through the village searching for victims. Frantic goats and cows were seen swimming in the mud searching for safe ground.

By the time Rice left the region it was revealed that the ‘negotiations’ between Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas will not include the three core issues - Jerusalem, refugees and borders. How surprising.

Instead of going from Jerusalem to Riyadh, Rice went back to Washington. She realised that she had nothing to offer the Arab leaders summit. She has nothing to offer almost as much as the people of Umm Naser have nothing to lose.

US to support major Fatah troop boost

Related
US to support up to 10000 extra Abbas troops
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US to support troop boost

Feb 4, 2007 [Sunday]

The United States will expand assistance to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to include about 8,500 members of his national security forces and possibly 1,000 Fatah fighters based in Jordan, US documents show.

Providing non-lethal equipment and training to units of Abbas's National Security Forces, and possibly the Jordan-based Badr Brigade could increase Washington's role in the power struggle between Abbas's Fatah faction and the governing Hamas movement.

US assistance has largely been limited until now to around 4,000 members of Abbas's presidential guard. But documents obtained by Reuters on Sunday showed that the US government's US$86.4 million security assistance programme could cover at least 13,500 troops loyal to Abbas.

The National Security Forces (NSF) is the largest security force under Abbas's control and is viewed by many Palestinians to be the equivalent of an army, though it is poorly trained and equipped compared to the smaller presidential guard.

Under the US security programme, US$76.4 million will fund "projects to transform and strengthen elements of the Palestinian Authority's security structure, specifically the National Security Forces and Presidential Guard in an effort to improve public order and fight terror in the West Bank and Gaza," the documents said.

"These projects have been developed in coordination with the office of the PA president (Abbas), and the overall plan enjoys the support of the government of Israel," said the documents, marked "sensitive but unclassified".

Another US$10 million would fund security improvements at the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Western officials involved in the programme said security service members who participate in the US-funded programme will undergo a vetting process to ensure they are qualified and have no ties to militant groups.

Hamas has denounced US security assistance as part of a coup against its government. Hamas gunmen on Friday attached a truck convey in Gaza that it said was meant to resupply Abbas's presidential guard, triggering a wave of fighting.

US officials say they will only provide training and non-lethal equipment to forces loyal to Abbas. Guns and ammunition are being supplied by key US allies Jordan and Egypt, with Israeli approval, Israeli officials say.

Under the US$86.4 million programme, US$35.5 million will be used to provide non-lethal equipment, including riot gear and communications equipment, to about 8,500 members of Abbas's National Security Forces.

Another US$15 million in US funds would provide at least one NSF unit, estimated to have 668 members, with an initial six months of training to counter "civil disorder", most likely at a facility in Jordan, the documents say.

The funds will be used "in support of NSF deployment throughout the West Bank and Gaza so that the NSF may establish a visible public presence, improve public order and help improve border security," the documents said.

The United States expected other donors to provide extra training, the documents said, but gave no further details.

Palestinian officials estimate that the National Security Forces have as many as 40,000 members. Western diplomats say the number of active members is closer to 20,000.

Badr brigade

The US$86.4 million also includes US$25.9 million to provide non-lethal equipment to Abbas's elite presidential guard, which is expected to grow to 4,700 members with US help near-term. Palestinian officials say the force could eventually top 10,000.

The documents said up to US$8 million of these funds may be used to provide equipment to the Badr Brigade, a Fatah-dominated force, "in the event of a deployment in Gaza". Badr would fall under the presidential guard's operational command.

The United States and Israel have backed a proposal by Abbas to let about 1,000 members of the Badr Brigade, into the Palestinian territories, though no date has been set.

Diplomats say Abbas's military build-up was meant to counter strides by Hamas in smuggling more powerful weapons into Gaza for its fast-growing "Executive Force" and armed wing.

Some analysts have warned that fighting between Hamas and Fatah could turn into a proxy war, with the United States supporting Abbas and Iran backing Hamas.

Condi’s Middle East Junket; a new dose of cynicism

Jan 18, 2006

By Mike Whitney

Condoleezza Rice has used her trip through the Middle East to announce her intention to “accelerate the road map and move to the establishment of a Palestinian state”. (NY Times) She plans to convene a summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert so that “informal talks” can be held on the main issues related to a permanent settlement.

Why? Why this sudden interest on Rice’s part in Palestinian statehood?

As Rice said on Monday, “Before we say this is going to end in frustration, let’s be glad that after 6 years that the parties want to engage in an informal set of discussions about the future between them.”

“Be glad”?!?

The administration has shown no interest in resuming peace talks for 6 years, the entire length of the Bush presidency. The only reason Rice is calling for negotiations now is because the US needs the support of the regional (Sunni) allies for the Bush’s new strategy to quell the violence in Baghdad. That’s why Rice met with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the other Gulf states, to garner their support for the “New Way Forward”. (aka: “the surge”)

The administration has no interest in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It’s a cynical attempt to manipulate Arab public opinion. The administration helped to enforce the Israeli boycott of food, water and medical supplies to Gaza, and they have stopped other donor-states from providing humanitarian relief. They refused to endorse the UN resolutions which condemned the Israeli bombing of the main power station in Gaza (which cut off electrical power to over 1 million Palestinians), or the targeted assassinations which repeatedly kill innocent bystanders, or the wanton murder of 18 members of the same family who were asleep in their home in Beit Hanoun.

The administration has also refused to accept the results of the Palestinian elections--which overwhelmingly supported the new Hamas parliament--even though Bush has repeatedly stated that his primary goal is to bring “democracy” to the Middle East. Instead, Bush has given $18 million to training militants in Jordan (who are members of the rival Palestinian group, Fatah) so they can return to the occupied territories and initiate hostilities against the elected Hamas government. This is being conducted under the supervision of the US intelligence agencies and with the complete knowledge and cooperation of Israeli-puppet, Mahmoud Abbas.

The message is clear: If elections do not produce the results that please Washington and Tel Aviv; expect to face “regime change” through force.

While Palestinian children were being shot in the head by Israeli snipers in Gaza, Rice was crowing about “birth pangs” for “New Middle East”. And, when an entire family was blown to bits while picnicking on a beach in Gaza, Rice was proclaiming Israel’s “right to defend itself”.

And, now she wants peace?

Rice is no friend of the Palestinians nor is anyone in the Bush administration. It would be better to starve to death in the dark than to accept the peace of oppressors.

Palestinian PM accuses Rice of bringing 'perilous vision' to Mideast

Last update - 20:48 15/01/2007

By Aluf Benn and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents, and the Associated Press

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas on Monday accused U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of bringing a "perilous vision" to the region, shortly after she announced plans to join an Israeli-Palestinian summit in the coming weeks.

Rice, who is in the Middle East in hopes of restarting peace efforts, is trying to "sedate" the Palestinians with promises of easing Israeli restrictions while really serving Israel's interests, said Haniyeh.

"She is bringing a perilous vision that everyone should be wary of," Haniyeh said. "It seems obvious the Bush administration will not exert any pressures on Israel to offer any substantial concessions to the Palestinian people."

Rice is seeking to bolster the moderate Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in his standoff against Hamas. Those efforts include more than $80 million in assistance to Abbas' Presidential Guard.

Haniyeh called the aid to Abbas "dangerous" and said it would only worsen recent infighting between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that while he was in favor of a three-way summit, bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians must also continue.

U.S. officials said after Olmert's three-hour meeting with Rice on Monday that the two had agreed to hold a three-way summit with Abbas in the near future.

Olmert said that the summit would "consider relations between us and the Palestinians," but added that "there is no doubt that we must - at the same time - also continue the bilateral meetings between us and them."

Senior Palestine Liberation Organization negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas was ready to attend the summit "in principle," but details about where and when the summit would be held were not worked out.

Erekat said Rice is reflecting a serious and genuine interest in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. "What she said is that President Bush, in the remaining two years of his office, has no more important priority than to leave office with a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He wants to see his vision realized," he said.

A senior U.S. official in Rice's delegation said the "trilateral meeting" would be aimed at "having a conversation about the political horizon leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said no date or place had been set for the summit.

The U.S. official said the meeting would likely take place in the next three or four weeks somewhere in the Middle East.

Speaking to his Kadima faction after meeting with Rice, Olmert said that the internationally brokered road map continues to be the basis for the peace process, and that there was "no substitute for bilateral negotiations" with the Palestinians.

He said that if a Palestinian unity government made up of Hamas and Fatah agreed to accept the three key international demands for recognition of Israel, the renunciation of violence and acceptance of previous accords, then negotiations could be possible.

No details of the talks between Olmert and Rice were formally released, but the prime minister had been expected to tell the secretary of state that Israel would take "unprecedented steps" vis-a-vis the Palestinians, if the Hamas-led PA government met the criteria spelled out by the Quartet.

The meeting between Olmert and Rice was also called to discuss ways to boost Abbas' standing, as a means to further the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians.

The prime minister was to stress that his is a "peace government" but without the Palestinians meeting the three international preconditions it is impossible to more forward.

Olmert was also expected to warn that the establishment of a Palestinian government of national unity, which does not adopt the preconditions set by the Quartet, will bring an end to Israel's efforts to support Abbas.

On Sunday, Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet that the violence between Fatah and Hamas, which led to the deaths of 20 people last week, was considered by the Palestinians as crossing a "red line." He added that this could result in greater flexibility on the part of the factions in agreeing on a government of national unity.

Political sources in Jerusalem said on Sunday that "the Palestinians are now talking about the division of ministerial portfolios in the new government, without committing themselves to accept the Quartet preconditions."

Meanwhile, in an interview on Channel 10 on Sunday, Rice said the road map must be implemented and there is no reason to skip over any of its stages. Her comment was in part referring to an earlier rejection by Abbas of the idea that the second stage of the road map - calling for a Palestinian state based on temporary borders - was a realistic possibility at this stage.

She also said that in her talks with Abbas on Sunday, he had reiterated his wish and willingness to carry out Palestinian obligations laid out in the road map.

Following their meeting in Ramallah on Sunday, Abbas announced that he would not agree to a Palestinian state within temporary borders, as is proposed in the second stage of the road map. "We do not consider this possibility a realistic one that we can build on," the Palestinian leader said.

Other Palestinian officials also voiced their opposition to such an arrangement, saying that it would stymie progress toward a final settlement.

Rice said that the U.S. intends to deepen its involvement in the peace process, aiming to restart it on the basis of the road map.

There have been reports in recent days that a summit of the leaderships of both Fatah and Hamas is being organized in Damascus, with the specific aim of finalizing an agreement for a national unity government. Abbas denied that any such meeting is scheduled to take place.

According to the reports, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sheikh Mohammed Akef, was instrumental in convincing Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas' political bureau, and Abbas to meet in order to iron out their differences.

Elliot Abrams’ uncivil war

Is the Bush administration violating the law in an effort to provoke a Palestinian civil war?

Deputy National Security Advisor, Elliott Abrams — who Newsweek recently described as “the last neocon standing” — has had it about for some months now that the U.S. is not only not interested in dealing with Hamas, it is working to ensure its failure. In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas elections, last January, Abrams greeted a group of Palestinian businessmen in his White House office with talk of a “hard coup” against the newly-elected Hamas government — the violent overthrow of their leadership with arms supplied by the United States. While the businessmen were shocked, Abrams was adamant — the U.S. had to support Fatah with guns, ammunition and training, so that they could fight Hamas for control of the Palestinian government.

While those closest to him now concede the Abrams’ words were issued in a moment of frustration, the “hard coup” talk was hardly just talk. Over the last twelve months, the United States has supplied guns, ammunition and training to Palestinian Fatah activists to take on Hamas in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank. A large number of Fatah activists have been trained and “graduated” from two camps — one in Ramallah and one in Jericho. The supplies of rifles and ammunition, which started as a mere trickle, has now become a torrent (Haaretz reports the U.S. has designated an astounding $86.4 million for Abu Mazen’s security detail), and while the program has gone largely without notice in the American press, it is openly talked about and commented on in the Arab media — and in Israel. Thousands of rifles and bullets have been poring into Gaza and the West Bank from Egypt and Jordan, the administration’s designated allies in the program.

At first, it was thought, the resupply effort (initiated under the guise of “assist[ing] the Palestinian Authority presidency in fulfilling PA commitments under the road map to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and establish law and order in the West Bank and Gaza,” according to a U.S. government document) would strengthen the security forces under the command of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Officials thought that the additional weapons would easily cow Hamas operatives, who would meekly surrender the offices they had only recently so dearly won. That has not only not happened, but the program is under attack throughout the Arab world — particularly among America’s closest allies.

While both Egypt and Jordan have shipped arms to Abu Mazen under the Abrams program (Egypt recently sent 1,900 rifles into Gaza and the West Bank, nearly matching the 3000 rifles sent by the Jordanians), neither Jordan’s King Abdullah nor Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak believe the program will work — and both are now maneuvering to find a way out of it. “Who can blame them?” an administration official told us recently. “While Mubarak has no love for Hamas, they do not want to be seen as bringing them down. The same can be said for Jordan.” A Pentagon official was even more adamant, cataloguing official Washington’s nearly open disdain for Abrams’ program. “This is not going to work and everyone knows it won’t work. It is too clever. We’re just not very good at this. This is typical Abrams stuff.” This official went on to note that “it is unlikely that either Jordan or Egypt will place their future in the hands of the White House. Who the hell outside of Washington wants to see a civil war among Palestinians? Do we really think that the Jordanians think that’s a good idea. The minute it gets underway, Abdullah is finished. Hell, fifty percent of his country is Palestinian.”

Senior U.S. Army officers and high level civilian Pentagon officials have been the most outspoken internal administration critics of the program, which was unknown to them until mid-August, near the end of Israel’s war against Hezbollah. When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld learned about it he was enraged, and scheduled a meeting with President Bush in an attempt to convince him the program would backfire. Rumsfeld was concerned that the anti-Hamas program would radicalise Muslim groups among American allies and eventually endanger U.S. troops fighting Sunni extremists in Iraq. According to our reports, Rumsfeld was told by Bush that he should keep his focus on Iraq, and that “the Palestinian brief” was in the hands of the Secretary of State. After this confrontation, Rumsfeld decided there was not much he could do.

The Abrams program was initially conceived in February of 2006 by a group of White House officials who wanted to shape a coherent and tough response to the Hamas electoral victory of January. These officials, we are told, were led by Abrams, but included national security advisors working in the Office of the Vice President, including prominent neo-conservatives David Wurmser and John Hannah. The policy was approved by Condoleezza Rice. The President then, we are told, signed off on the program in a CIA “finding” and designated that its implementation be put under the control of Langley. But the program ran into problems almost from the beginning. “The CIA didn’t like it and didn’t think it would work,” we were told in October. “The Pentagon hated it, the US embassy in Israel hated it, and even the Israelis hated it.” A prominent American military official serving in Israel called the program “stupid” and “counter-productive.” The program went forward despite these criticisms, however, though responsibility for its implementation was slowly put in the hands of anti-terrorism officials working closely with the State Department. The CIA “wriggled out of” retaining responsibility for implementing the Abrams plan, we have been told. Since at least August, Rice, Abrams and U.S. envoy David Welch have been its primary advocates and the program has been subsumed as a “part of the State Department’s Middle East initiative.” U.S. government officials refused to comment on a report that the program is now a part of the State Department’s “Middle East Partnership Initiative,” established to promote democracy in the region. If it is, diverting appropriated funds from the program for the purchase of weapons may be a violation of Congressional intent — and U.S. law.

The recipients of U.S. largesse have been Palestinian President Abu Mazen and Mohammad Dahlan, a controversial and charismatic Palestinian political leader from Gaza. The U.S. has also relied on advice from Mohammad Rashid, a well-known Kurdish/Palestinian financier with offices in Cairo. Even in Israel, the alliance of the U.S. with these two figures is greeted with almost open derision. While Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has hesitantly supported the program, many of his key advisors have made it clear that they want to have nothing to do with starting a Palestinian civil war. They also doubt whether Hamas can be weakened. These officials point out that, since the beginning of the program, Hamas has actually gained in strength, in part because its leaders are considered competent, transparent, uncorrupt and unwilling to compromise their ideals — just the kinds of democratically elected leaders that the Bush Administration would want to support anywhere else in the Middle East.

Of course, in public, Secretary Rice appears contrite and concerned with “the growing lawlessness” among Palestinians, while failing to mention that such lawlessness is exactly what the Abrams plan was designed to create. “You can’t build security forces overnight to deal with the kind of lawlessness that is there in Gaza which largely derives from an inability to govern,” she said during a recent trip to Israel. “Their [the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority] inability to govern, of course, comes from their unwillingness to meet international standards.” Even Middle East experts and State Department officials close to Rice consider her comments about Palestinian violence dangerous, and have warned her that if the details of the U.S. program become public her reputation could be stained. In fact, Pentagon officials concede, Hamas’s inability to provide security to its own people and the clashes that have recently erupted have been seeded by the Abrams plan. Israeli officials know this, and have begun to rebel. In Israel, at least, Rice’s view that Hamas can be unseated is now regularly, and sometimes publicly, dismissed.

According to a December 25 article in the Israeli daily Haaretz, senior Israeli intelligence officials have told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that not only can Hamas not be replaced, but that its rival, Fatah, is disintegrating. Any hope for the success of an American program aimed at replacing Hamas, these officials argued, will fail. These Israeli intelligence officials also dismissed Palestinian President Abu Mazen’s call for elections to replace Hamas — saying that such elections would all but destroy Fatah. As Haaretz reported: “Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet Sunday [December 24] that should elections be held in the Palestinian Authority, Fatah’s chances of winning would be close to zero. Diskin said during Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting that the Fatah faction is in bad shape, and therefore Israel should expect Hamas to register a sweeping victory.”

Apparently Jordan’s King Abdullah agrees. On the day this article appeared, December 25, Abdullah kept Palestinian President Abu Mazen waiting for six hours to see him in Amman. Eventually, Abdullah told Abu Mazen that he should go home — and only come to see him again when accompanied by Hamas leader and Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh. Most recently, Saudi officials have welcomed Haniyeh to Saudi Arabia for talks, having apparently made public their own views on the American program to replace Hamas. And so it is: one year after the election of Hamas, and one year after Elliot Abrams determined that sowing the seeds of civil war among a people already under occupation would somehow advance America’s program for democracy in the Middle East, respect for America’s democratic ideals has all but collapsed — and not just in Iraq.

Posted: January 7th, 2007 under CF REPORTS, Hamas, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Neocons, Palestinians, Bush Administration.
Comments: 3 | Permalink | home

Abbas: 'Israeli calls for peace and security are fake'

Abbas condemns Israeli raid in Ramallah

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Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

Jan. 4, 2007

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas harshly condemned an IDF raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday, saying it "proved that the Israeli calls for peace and security are fake."

The raid sparked gun battles that killed two Palestinians and wounded 25 others.

In a written statement on Thursday, Abbas appealed to the international community to rein in Israel.

"The continued aggression will only lead to the destruction of all efforts aimed at realizing peace," Abbas said.

Olmert and Abbas “push the wedge” in Palestine

Jan 3, 2007

By James Brooks

The recent “peace” overtures between Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Abbas do not promise significantly improved conditions for Palestinians or an end to the Israeli occupation. More likely results include intensified efforts to split the Palestinian public and undermine their legally elected government.

The meeting has been portrayed as an opening to relations between Israel and the PA that “boost Abbas” and exclude Hamas altogether. Olmert, Abbas, and their backers in Washington and Europe have insisted that Hamas, the popularly elected majority party, “renounce violence” and “recognize Israel’s right to exist.” These are the stated objectives of the crushing economic blockade that Israel and the Western powers have enforced against occupied Palestine since last March.

Objectively, neither demand has much substance. Hamas recently renounced violence by maintaining a unilateral ceasefire for well over a year. The same period saw a steady escalation of Israeli raids, arrests, killings, and settlements in the occupied territories. Everyone, including Israel’s general staff, knows that Hamas would return to a ceasefire if it thought Israel were serious about reciprocating. Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal’s recent proposal for a 10-year ceasefire was summarily rebuffed.

It is not Hamas that is launching most of the rockets into Israel these days, but the Al Aqsa Brigades attached to Mr. Abbas’ Fateh Party, seconded by the Al Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad. And all the Israeli casualties and destruction caused by the last two years of Palestinian rockets would not equal the damage wrought in one average week of IDF operations in occupied Palestine.

The Olmert-Abbas ‘mini-summit’ provided more evidence of the insincerity of the “renounce violence” demand when Mr. Olmert failed to get even a pause in the firing of Al Aqsa rockets before his meeting with the leader of Fateh.

As for ‘recognizing Israel’s right to exist,’ we simply note that Israel has yet to recognize the state of Palestine’s ‘right to exist.’ Israel currently forbids a Palestinian state and negates the Palestinians’ national rights daily with its strangling military occupation. Under the circumstances, it hardly seems unreasonable for Hamas to withhold recognition of this ‘right to exist’ until it is reciprocated in word and deed.

The problem, of course, is that a PA run by Hamas cannot be considered fit company in any “peace process” with Israel until Hamas meets both demands, as Fateh is supposed to have done in the past. The “peace process” operates under a bifurcated system of precedent, in which every concession made by Palestinian leaders has been irreversibly chiseled into stone, while numerous Israeli promises have been erased in practice and will have to be won again by Palestinians in future talks.

Today, in the 40th year of Israel’s occupation and creeping annexation of their remaining land, Palestinians have little left to hold on to but their national rights, and their obstinate refusal to part with them. No one familiar with the history of the “peace process” can be surprised by polls that continue to show a majority of Palestinians supporting Hamas and its refusal to recognize Israel’s ‘right to exist,’ at least until it is returned in kind.

Yet the stated subtext to the economic blockade of the PA has been to “convince the Palestinian people” (by driving them into destitution) to abandon Hamas in favor of the more “moderate” Fateh. Presumably, an informed strategist would know that the majority of Palestinians would reject this blatant attempt to undermine their voice. It might even harden support for Hamas and its allegiance to principles.

If so, the policy must have been directed at the minority response. What was the likelihood that deepening poverty, accompanied by a bloody military siege and internal strife, fanned and sometimes instigated by Israeli agents and collaborators, would drive a sizeable number of people to capitulate in the arms of Abbas? This was, after all, one of the stated objectives of the project.

Politically, this would be considered “pushing a wedge issue,” a calculated effort to divide an electorate along ideological lines, usually for one’s own political gain. In this case the electorate is not the constituency of the politicians “pushing the wedge,” but the Palestinian people, the impoverished and land-robbed victims of the modern world’s longest running illegal military occupation.

While Mr. Olmert and his wife recently shared herring in lemon sauce with Mr. Abbas in a sunny East Jerusalem villa, the PM’s aides pulled out all the stops to project the image of Abbas as “just like any other head of state.” They even (flouting the law) flew a Palestinian flag.

The Christmas “gifts” from Mr. Olmert included $100 million of the PA’s own tax revenues, which Israel has refused to turn over since the elected Hamas government took office last March. Since Israel’s take in this heist is now estimated to exceed $800 million, the pittance given to Mr. Abbas had the air of hush money paid by organized crime. Most of it will be used to pay down the PA’s debts -- to Israeli creditors -- and then only after Israel is satisfied that Hamas will never see it.

As Olmert was willing to part with only one-eighth of the Palestinians’ money, he may consent to removing one-eighth of the Israeli army’s “roadblocks” in the fragments of the West Bank where Palestinians are still allowed to live. He also promises to make it easier for the people of the West Bank to get permits to travel to their own orchards, or to the next town or village, or maybe (mirable dictu!) to a nearby city. In other words, Mr. Abbas has gained a slight (and very likely temporary) loosening of Israel’s suffocating grip on the throat of Palestine.

In exchange, President Abbas managed to forget that Israel has illegally kidnapped and imprisoned the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, at least 28 of the PLC’s elected members, and at least 10 government ministers, half of whom it still holds. Does a “head of state” go begging for crumbs from a foreign power that is holding abducted members of his own government?

If Mr. Abbas were sincerely interested in forming a national unity government with Hamas, he would not have sold their prisoners of state so cheaply. Had he been truly committed to democracy last March, he would have led his defeated party into loyal opposition in the newly elected Hamas government. By closing ranks with Hamas, Abbas and Fateh could have shown the world that Palestinians would obey their own constitution, work out their own issues, and would not be prey to outside interference or blockades.

Instead, he set out to commandeer the PA’s security forces and led Fateh into the disloyal opposition they have maintained to this day. Lately he has taken the PA into new constitutional territory by claiming the unilateral power to call new elections. His Fateh-packed Supreme Court recently declared that decisions made by the current PLC are “null and void.” Fortified by a significant new supply of US weapons and training, Mr. Abbas appears dangerously close to usurping both the Palestinian constitution and the will of the people by pretending to be the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian Authority.

In following this course, Mr. Abbas has made himself available to external forces that wish to make him the ultimate spoiler of last January’s free and fair elections. The ultimate goal of these parties, Israel foremost among them, may be to trigger Palestinian civil war and fatally split the Palestinians’ national solidarity, their key to survival. Perhaps to this end, the myth that Israel has “no partner for peace” is being transformed into the myth that Israel has “only one partner for peace,” one that, under present conditions, cannot claim to represent the Palestinian people.


James Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel. He can be contacted at jamiedb@wildblue.net.

Failure of Palestinian diplomacy in 2006

From palestine-info.co.uk

Analysis
By Khalid Amayreh
Jan 2, 2007, 15:21

In 2006, the Palestinian diplomacy failed, almost completely, in achieving its central goals.

These include, first, expediting the process of ending the Israeli military occupation that began in 1967; second, lifting the draconian siege imposed by Israel, the US, and EU, in connivance with certain Arab regimes, for the purpose of punishing the Palestinian people for electing Hamas; and, third, exposing Israeli brutality and criminality against our people.

In the past year, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas visited many capitals, including Washington D.C. , and received in Ramallah scores of foreign leaders and diplomats.

However, these high-profile meetings and encounters yielded next to nothing in terms of positive tangible outcome, apart from the usual pleasantries and public relations trappings.

Indeed, a meticulous review of Abbas’s meetings with foreign leaders in 2006 (2005 was no different) shows that the Palestinian leadership failed utterly in communicating the messages that ought to have been communicated to these foreign visitors.

For example, Abbas made little or no efforts to tell the world community that it was unfair and unwise to punish ordinary Palestinians because of Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel and that it was illogical to demand that Hamas recognize Israel without demanding a reciprocal Israeli recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

He also equally utterly failed to effectively and clearly convey the message that the election of Hamas in January 2006 didn’t really imply that a majority of Palestinians were against peace with Israel or dedicated to the destruction of the apartheid state as Israeli hasbara has been successfully trying to convince the international community.

Indeed, Abbas’s statements and remarks in the presence of foreign visitors often suggested that he more or less agreed that the Palestinian people erred, to put it mildly, by electing Hamas, and had to incur the consequences.

Furthermore, the PA leadership in 2006 was guilty of indulgence in seeking to appease and please the West, especially the United States , by creating the impression that the PA, especially Fatah, was joining the American-inspired “coalition of the moderates,” which includes pro-American regimes in the Middle East against the anti-Israeli coalition, which includes Hamas, Hizbullah , Syria and Iran .

Well, this impression is false and deceptive because Palestine and the Palestinians are occupied and tormented by Israel whose occupation of our land is supported, sustained and guarded by the United States , not by Iran or Hizbullah or Syria .

More to the point, we must take note of the fact that these artificial and disingenuous classifications (the coalitions of moderates and extremists) are being utilized by the bankrupt Bush administration in order to redefine the essence of the Palestinian cause, from an enduring criminal and racist occupation of Palestine and systematic repression of its people to a mere psychological problem of moderates and extremists. This is how the Bush administration, in coordination with some Zionist circles, such as the so-called Peres Peace Center , has come to understand the conflict in this region.

That is why they are always trying to get Palestinian soccer players (usually the young boys and girls uncorrupted by extremist thinking!!) to play Israeli counterparts or play with them in one team against a foreign soccer team, as happened recently in Spain . Well, they are trying to spread the message that the problem is not the rape of Palestine by the Jews, the expulsion of millions of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland, but merely a psychological problem and some unresolved psychological complexes.

Having effectively joined the “axis of moderates” (which actually is an axis of liars), Abbas may have hoped that this false perceived proximity vis-à-vis the Americans would have placed him in a better position to extract Palestinian rights from Israel ’s criminal hands.

But this view is short sighted if not outright naïve. This almost messianic American administration, which believes that the invasion, occupation and destruction of Iraq, was inspired by God, will not award or reward Abbas for being moderate (in the American lexicon “moderate” means coming to terms with the Israeli occupation and giving up Jerusalem as well as the right of return and much of the West Bank).

This is clear from the quality of the award the Bush Administration is already giving the PA.

Indeed, instead of ordering Israel to stop building racist Jewish-only colonies and put an end to the policy of narrowing Palestinians’ horizons, George Bush has decided to give us weapons and millions of bullets to kill each other. More to the point, the fact that the delivery of these weapons has been supported by the likes of Avigdor Lieberman and right-wing Jewish extremists in the US speaks volumes in itself.

This is the same Bush that once described Ariel Sharon (we know well who Sharon is) as a man of peace and awarded his artificial withdrawal from Gaza by bestowing legitimacy to scores of Jewish colonies in the West Bank .

Our leadership must realize that the Palestinian people are not an Eidul Adha ram, to be fed today in order to be slaughtered tomorrow.

It is lamentable that PA spokesmen, from Abbas downward, are scandalously failing to get the right messages through to the world.

For these reasons, in 2007, we must seek to rethink our performance with regard to media tactics and public diplomacy and do away with the often jumbled and confused public discourse. And in order to do that, we must concentrate on the following messages.
First, that the Israeli occupation is an act of rape and that it is the mother of all problems in the Middle East and beyond, and that there can be no peace or stability between Islam and the West, let alone between Israel and the Muslim world, as long as the Israeli occupation persists and the Palestinian people are denied their rights, including the right to have a viable and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital as well the repatriation of Palestinian refugees to their original hometowns and villages in what is now Israel.

Second, that Hamas is an authentic societal force that can’t be marginalized let alone eradicated and that it is futile and unrealistic to starve and torment the Palestinian people in order to weaken Hamas.

Third, that the Palestinian people will not be cajoled or bullied into accepting a deformed state, one with a form but without a substance.

Furthermore, the PA should stop talking about Hamas in the presence of foreign, especially American visitors since this would give the impression that the real problem lies in the existence of Hamas, not in the reality of the Israeli colonization and occupation of our homeland.

More to the point, the PA should really tell the international community that the PA itself is under the Israeli occupation and that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is still as sinister and as direct as it was prior to the conclusion of the Oslo Accords in 1993.

Indeed, giving the false impression of Palestinian statehood, by employing such bombastic but mendacious phrases as Palestinian “sovereignty” and Palestinian “government” and Palestinian “security forces,” is really self-defeating and very very harmful to Palestinian aspirations for real freedom and real statehood. After all, real freedom can only be attained following a real delivery from this Nazi-like occupation of our country.

Finally, it is sad that the PA continues to employ poorly qualified or unqualified spokespersons with inadequate political and linguistic abilities to communicate the Palestinian view point to the outside world. We need professional spokespersons with excellent knowledge of the world and mastery of foreign languages, especially English, to tell the world in straightforward manner that Israel is a murderer, liar and land thief and that the problem lies squarely in the Zionist theft of our land and savagery of our people.

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© Copyright 2003 by palestine-info.co.uk email: webmaster@palestine-info.info



Israel to supply Abbas with armored vehicles to overthrow government

Abu Marzouk: Israel to supply Abbas with armored vehicles to overthrow government
By
Dec 22, 2006, 19:29

Damascus – Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, said that his movement has evidence that Israel will supply President Mahmoud Abbas with armored vehicles fitted with 14.5 mm machine guns to be used against the Palestinian people.

Dr. Abu Marzouk, further remarked that there were parties who are seeking military action to overthrow the Palestinian elected government.

He added that his movement has reliable information that the Israeli agreed to supply Abbas' presidential guards with armored vehicles fitted with 14.5 mm machine guns.

He also pointed out that Israel agreed to the deployment of the 3000 strong, Jordan based, Badr force in the Gaza Strip to match the power of Hamas warning that if Abbas resorts to undemocratic options it will bring chaos to the streets.

He emphasized that his movement will do all in its power to prevent a civil war even if this proves to be costly to the movement and called upon wise people in Fatah and the President to steer away from actions that could lead to confrontations.

He also said that all attempts to overthrow the government have failed that is why they are resorting now to security chaos in the street, adding that if the people were unhappy with Hamas they would have demonstrated against its government for having sanctions imposed on them, but the people know that the US and Israel are imposing these sanctions to get Hamas to compromise their rights that is why they remain faithful to Hamas.

Finally he said: "We will not submit to blackmail and pressure and we will continue to advocate a national unity government."

© Copyright palestine-info.co.uk

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas is facing the foibles of his foiled coup

Some of the conclusions of the writer are 'Uncle Tom' - like in nature. Some good background info here.
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Palestinian Affairs: Shooting in the dark

Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 22, 2006

If anything, the bloody Fatah-Hamas clashes over the past week prove that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's security forces continue to have a strong presence on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These events have also shown that Abbas's Fatah party has thousands of loyal gunmen who are not reluctant to take on Hamas.

Ever since he came to power in January 2005, Abbas has been complaining that his security forces are too weak to fight Hamas or other terror groups. These forces, he argued, are unable to carry out their duties because Israel had "destroyed" them and their headquarters during the past six years of the intifada.

This was the excuse he gave for failing to take action against Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who were firing rockets at Israel. And Abbas used the same excuse to justify his failure to restore law and order and disarm all the militias that are running wild in the Palestinian territories.

Like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, Abbas proved this week that he will use his powers as commander-in-chief only when his rivals challenge him and his regime. Arafat often used to imprison Hamas leaders only when they criticized him in public or said something bad about his top aides.

Indeed, every now and then he did order his Fatah-controlled security forces to crack down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad following terror attacks on Israel, but that was largely due to his fear that the terrorists were "harming" the national interests of the Palestinians. Then, Arafat mostly acted when the US and European governments threatened to cut off funds to the PA.

ABBAS'S MAIN problem with Hamas is that the Islamic movement's presence in government has resulted in financial sanctions by the international community. Ever since Hamas came to power nine months ago, Abbas and Fatah have been waging a stubborn campaign designed to bring down the government of Ismail Haniyeh.

After failing to persuade Hamas to cede control over most of the key ministries in a proposed unity government, Abbas, whose options are limited thanks to the PA constitution, finally decided to resort to a threat to call early presidential and legislative elections. His chief argument: The Palestinians are in urgent need of money from the international community.

Although this argument sounds rational and convincing, there is no denying the fact that Abbas's undeclared goal is to topple the Hamas-led government and reinstate his Fatah party. To achieve this goal, he has recruited a large team of political advisers and spokesmen, whose main mission is to undermine the credibility of Hamas in the eyes of the Palestinian public. Tens of millions of dollars, badly needed to pay salaries of PA civil servants, are being poured into this campaign.

Finally, Abbas decided to exploit Hamas's refusal to relinquish control over important cabinet portfolios as an excuse to take the fight to the streets. In fact, the latest Hamas-Fatah clashes began 24 hours before Abbas delivered his controversial speech last Saturday in Ramallah, in which he declared his intention to hold early elections.

Following Friday prayers at the local Gamal Abdel Nasser Mosque, hundreds of PA policemen and Fatah gunmen attacked Hamas supporters who tried to march peacefully toward Manara Square in downtown Ramallah. The forces had clear and firm orders to block the Hamas demonstrators at any price. The ensuing confrontation, condemned by Hamas as a "massacre" against worshipers, left more than 30 people wounded, three of them seriously.

"How come we never see these forces when the Israeli army invades Ramallah?" asked Hamas operative Muhammad Jamil. "We've already seen Abbas's policemen surrender in their underwear to Israeli soldiers in Jericho and other Palestinian cities."

Now that the street fighting has also failed to bring down the Hamas government, Abbas is beginning to realize the magnitude of the gamble he embarked upon when he announced his intention to send the Palestinians to the ballot boxes.

Public opinion polls suggest that the Palestinian public still hasn't lost faith in Hamas, and that there is a growing sense that Abbas is part of a wider scheme aimed at overthrowing a democratically elected government.

Hamas, on the other hand, has demonstrated that it is prepared to fight to the last man to stay in power. The mere fact that tens of thousands of PA policemen and Fatah gunmen in the Gaza Strip were not able to crush Hamas's tiny militia is seen as victory for Haniyeh and his colleagues.

"This was a coup attempt that failed," remarked a senior Haniyeh aide. "We hope that Abbas and Fatah have learned the lesson and will now stop their conspiring against the government. If they insist on their current strategy, they will again discover that it's not easy to mess around with Hamas."

Heavy fighting continues between Hamas and U.S. backed Fatah faction

U.S. military officers are running the heavily armed Fatah faction death squads. Most of Fatah is sitting this one out. Hamas is protecting the Palestinians as best they can from these attacks. Israel backs the U.S. and Abbas.
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Heavy fighting continues between Hamas and Fatah
Updated Fri. Dec. 22 2006 6:29 AM ET

Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Ferocious gunbattles broke out between Hamas and Fatah militants in the Gaza Strip and West Bank early Friday, underscoring the fragility of a new truce between the rival factions. A Hamas militiaman injured in violence that touched off the Gaza City shootout died of his wounds.

In other tension between the two factions, the office of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah blocked five major Hamas appointments to senior government positions earlier this week. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas accused Abbas of trying to subvert the government's authority by refusing to authorize the appointments.

Abbas' power struggle with Hamas turned violent earlier this month after he declared that efforts to form a more moderate coalition government with the militantly anti-Israel Islamic group had broken down.

The street battle early Friday in Gaza City, which encompassed Abbas' residence and the home of Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas, broke out as Hamas militiamen tried to free two fighters kidnapped Thursday.

In the charged atmosphere pervading Gaza, the firefight quickly spread out of control. Within minutes, it encompassed the presidential guard outside Abbas' house, other security officers in the area and the Hamas militiamen guarding Zahar's home and the nearby Foreign Ministry building.

Gunmen manning strategic rooftop positions began shooting at other armed men in the streets.

The presidential guard took up defensive positions behind newly built walls of sandbags and cement block barriers outside the residence of Abbas, who was not in Gaza at the time.

Hamas officials said Fatah gunmen shot at Zahar's home.

One witness estimated that more than 2,000 bullets were fired in the first 10 minutes of the shootout, and several rocket-propelled grenades were also launched. Despite the scale and intensity of the fighting, no one was wounded, health officials said.

Residents of the neighbourhood, the scene of other gunbattles over the past week, said they put their children in bathtubs for protection against stray bullets. Others tucked themselves in corners for safety.

The violence died down after about 20 minutes as Muslim clerics and other mediators worked to restore calm.

A Hamas militiaman injured in the course of the kidnapping Thursday, Ayman Jirjawi, died of his wounds early Friday, said Islam Shahwan, a militia spokesman.

Hamas accused a Fatah-linked clan of carrying out the abduction to avenge the deaths of two clan members in factional fighting in Gaza last week. The fighting left 16 people dead and dozens injured before the truce took effect Tuesday night.

The internal violence has been mostly confined to Gaza, but fighting spilled over to the West Bank town of Nablus Friday morning. Witnesses and medics said about a dozen gunmen from Hamas and Fatah clashed near a soccer stadium where Hamas men were preparing for a rally. Palestinian medics said a bystander was wounded in the crossfire.

Terrified residents huddled in their homes.

Tiham Tufah, who lives near the stadium, said she hid with her husband and two daughters in their living room. "We feel caught in the middle of a big war, and we are really afraid,'' Tufah said. "We can't leave the house or look out the window. We live in fear.''

The factional fighting _ the violent mirror of Abbas' power struggle with Hamas _ also played out on the bureaucratic level Friday. In a letter to the office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, Abbas chief of staff Rafiq Husseini said five proposed Hamas appointments were illegal, in some cases because the positions were not actually vacant or did not exist.

The letter said other proposed appointments would be blocked on the same ground.

In a related development, a top Abbas aide, Azzam al-Ahmed, reiterated the Palestinian president's offer on Thursday to resume coalition talks with Hamas, but said it would only be good for a week or two.

Abbas had hoped a more moderate coalition between Hamas and his Fatah would allow the West to resume desperately needed aid, cut off to pressure the Hamas government to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

The Palestinian infighting coincided with stepped-up Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, destabilizing a shaky ceasefire between militant factions and Israel.

One rocket was fired early Friday, in addition to six launched on Thursday. The attacks Thursday caused no injuries to Israelis, but wounded three Palestinian children when a rocket veered off course, hospital officials and a relative said.

Israeli officials say Palestinian militants have fired nearly 50 rockets since the Nov. 26 truce took effect. Israel has not retaliated, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned this week that his patience was wearing thin.

In Abbas, Western Hopes Hang on Thin Reed

Playing favorites undermines Palestinian national unity.
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December 19, 2006
News Analysis

JERUSALEM, Dec. 18 — The call for early elections by Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian Authority president, is part of a Western-backed effort to revive the Middle East peace process in hopes of driving the radical Hamas party, which favors Israel’s destruction, out of power.
But Mr. Abbas today is a weak reed, with little power to carry out his decrees or his will. Two years after he was elected president, after the death of Yasir Arafat, opinion polls show that Mr. Abbas is perceived by a majority of Palestinians as a great disappointment, having brought little reform to his Fatah movement or improvement to their lives, while appearing to carry water for Israel and the United States.

Mr. Abbas made a great drama on Saturday of announcing these early elections, but they seem unlikely to happen. Hamas has promised to boycott and disrupt new legislative elections, seeing them as an attempted coup. So even if there were some form of voting, a Hamas boycott would make it hollow.

It may therefore be too late for Mr. Abbas and Fatah to be bolstered very effectively, even by a new American and British aid effort of the kind Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, here to support Mr. Abbas on Monday, seemed to foretell. Mr. Abbas is standing on shaky constitutional principles. It seems clear that he has no legal right to dissolve parliament without its consent. Not that constitutional principles are so holy here, but Mr. Abbas also lacks the power to carry out what he has decreed.

At the same time, Hamas would welcome the resignation of Mr. Abbas, which would mean an early presidential election, letting the movement try to defeat him and take full control over the Palestinian Authority.

By STEVEN ERLANGER

--MORE--

This is an attempt to overturn our elections

Editor's note: This blog is acting up. I may be moving over to thre other one shortly: CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS
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Karma Nabulsi
Tuesday December 19, 2006
The Guardian

Mahmoud Abbas declared yesterday: "Let the people decide for themselves what they want." But there already is a national consensus: there must be Palestinian elections, not for a president of the Palestinian Authority, or for members of its legislative council, but for the Palestinian National Council, the institutional body that forms the sovereign base of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have already elected a legislative council that represents a proportion of the body politic. They now demand elections for the entire Palestinian population.

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When Fatah lost power to Hamas in January, Fatah needed to avail itself of the democratic benefits that accrue to those who lose power in an election: the opportunity to reconnect with their constituents, to learn why it had lost and how to regain their people's trust. Instead, the "international community" told Fatah it was still in power and had to contnue to play this role or take responsibility for abandoning its suffering people to an even crueller fate .

What we are witnessing today is the horrific and inevitable outcome of a process of deliberate coercion, designed to force an occupied people to surrender their elected representatives. That this coercion is being carried out by the military occupier Israel and its neocon backers in the US administration is to be expected - and resisted. What is harder to understand is just how this coercion can be so flagrantly insisted upon by the British and the EU - who should be standing by the Palestinians, if not for the values of decency then as part of their responsibilities as co-signatories to the fourth Geneva convention.

The Palestinian people have indeed already spoken: for elections to the Palestinian National Council; for lifting the economic boycott of a democratically elected authority; for liberty and independence.

· Karma Nabulsi, a former PLO representative, is an Oxford politics fellow commentisfree.co.uk/karma_nabulsi

Abbas' call for early elections causes rift within Fatah

From palestine-info.co.uk

Daily News

Dec 17, 2006, 11:30

Gaza - The central committee of the Fatah Movement on Sunday lashed out at Farouk Kaddoumi, the secretary general of the Movement, and other Palestinian factions that rejected PA chief Mahmoud Abbas' call for early legislative elections.

In a statement on the issue, the committee said that Kaddoumi's stands do not reflect the official position of Fatah, especially those refusing Abbas' call for early elections.

It added that such positions only caused more confusion within the Fatah Movement and involved the Movement in regional axes that only "harmed the Palestine cause".

For his part, Ahmed Abdul Rahman, the official Fatah spokesman, said that Kaddoumi was not "qualified" to determine the Movement's policy.

However, the higher military council of the AMB, the armed wing of the Fatah Movement, declared its refusal of Abbas' call.

The council, which is the most prominent among the Fatah military wings, declared allegiance to Kaddoumi for his "national and responsible stands and in his capacity as an honest leader that crystallized the unity and cohesion of the Palestinian people".

Another armed wing of Fatah Tawhid (Unification) Brigades, also announced backing to the PA government in its rejection of early elections.

It affirmed that Abbas did not enjoy the same legitimacy as that of the government, noting that he only won 40% of votes in the presidential elections last year.

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© Copyright 2003 by palestine-info.co.uk email: webmaster@palestine-info.info


Palestinians react to pantomime politics

Tony Blair has been in the West Bank today, assuring the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of his support.

Mr Abbas, for his part, used a joint press conference to reiterate his intention to call new general elections in the hope of ending months of deadlock between his own Fatah organisation and the more radical Hamas group, which won the last election, in January.

This is not something that has pleased every Palestinian blogger - the Palestinian Free Voice makes its feelings known with the headline: "Abbas starts his coup d'etat to overthrow Hamas government."

Another blog, Raising Yousuf, Unplugged: diary of a Palestinian mother, is equally sceptical, saying:

"The interesting thing, Abbas focused his energy on attacking and tearing apart Hamas and its government, blaming them for everything from the state of siege and hunger we are in, to the death of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli attacks this summer, to the closure of the Rafah Crossing. He ignored completely the fact that Gaza's imprisonment and isolation began LONG before Hamas was elected into power."

One reader posting comments on the site shared a similar view:

"While his call for early elections will be criticised in many places, I find it depressing to think how this will be welcomed in the West. After suffocating the only democratic government in the Arab world, the West will no doubt support Abbas in calling elections again and again, until they get the result they want."

Slightly further away in Egypt - one of the nations already visited by Mr Blair on his current Middle East tour - Rantings of a Sandmonkey saw it slightly differently:

"I don't see why Hamas is so opposed to this. If they truly have the support of the people, they should easily win, no? Unless, of course, they know they won't win this time. Hmm..."

Meanwhile, From Gaza, with Love, the blog of a Palestinian woman doctor, concentrated on the recent surge of violence between Fatah and Hamas forces, the worst for a decade:

"I am sad, angry and not proud of what is going on in Gaza's streets at the moment. Palestinians and Palestinians fight and the Israeli occupation is watching us with the famous old policy of occupation, divide and rule. What a waste of energy and effort toward acheiving our national goals, towards a free and independent Palestine, towards achievement of peace that is based on justice. I could not go to my work, I was confined to my home. I live too close to the president's home and office... it was not safe for me to have a quick at look the shooting."

Amid all this, no local word yet on Mr Blair's latest peace mission, and whether or not is is likely to make a difference.

By Peter Walker / World news 04:21pm

Contemporaria

This post was last changed at 04:21 PM, December 18 2006

Another bid to break Hamas

Mahmoud Abbas has been backed by international players in his call for early elections, but what do they think this will achieve?

December 18, 2006 11:17 AM

Azzam Tamimi

As Hamas and Fatah supporters took to the streets to express their protest or support in response to Mahmoud Abbas's decision to call for early presidential elections and battled each other with stones and bullets, congratulatory gestures of support landed at Abbas's front door from the three major international players that have together designed and imposed the sanctions regime against the Palestinians. The White House, Tony Blair and the Israeli government thought Abbas had done the right thing and urged the world community to support him in his last bid to rid them of a Hamas-led government. It is these three parties, and to a lesser extent those that complied with their instructions, that carry the burden of any Palestinian blood that is being shed with Palestinian hands as a result of the current crisis.

The last resort tactic by Abbas illustrates the depth of the predicament in which he, his clique of advisers (or more accurately minders) and his international sponsors find themselves. Despite many months of sanctions, Hamas managed quite well, given the circumstances in which it has been left to administer Palestinian affairs. The tight grip of the "international community" could not prevent the movement from bringing in enough money to pay civil servants several advance payments and to keep the basic health and educational services running. The hardship caused by the sanctions did little to convince the Palestinians that Hamas was responsible; the majority of the victims of the regime of collective punishment did not blame Hamas, which to them was equally a victim. Polls conducted by local and international bodies inside the West Bank and Gaza kept pointing to a rise in the popularity of Hamas countered by an erosion of respect for Fatah and its beleaguered leadership.

In other words the sanctions, which had been the international community's prize awarded to the losers of the January 25 2006 democratic elections, failed to deliver. Without the sanctions Abbas and his "minders" would have been totally disarmed; they would have had nothing to justify their insistence upon the need for a Palestinian government that should meet the demands of the international community.

The very successful tour of a number of countries in the Middle East by the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, seemed to threaten the US-led sanctions regime. An increasing number of countries, Arab and non-Arab and Islamic and non-Islamic, have shown signs of defiance and determination to break the embargo. Some, like Qatar, Iran, Bahrain and Sudan, have openly made commitments to pay the salaries of Palestinian employees in the health and education sectors and to rebuild the houses and government buildings destroyed by the Israelis.

Haniyeh arrived back with a considerable amount of cash and the bulk of the financial commitment promised by the countries he visited was to follow. But his return was deliberately pre-empted by a renewed wave of lawlessness that claimed the lives of three innocent children and a judge. As he crossed the border from Egypt into Gaza shots were fired at him, killing his bodyguard and wounding his son and his political adviser. Instead of a celebratory triumphal climate, storms of factional tension blew over the strip instilling fear and anxiety in the minds of most of its residents.

What does the world community think it can achieve from all of this? A resolution of the conflict, as Blair so naively believes? A resumption of negotiations with a Palestinian party on Israeli terms as Olmert so arrogantly expects? An end to all Palestinian struggles for justice as the neocon-led US administration so ignorantly hopes? Or an end to rivalry by an Islamic resistance movement that is loyal to the Palestinian dream as Abbas and his minders wish?

The only thing that is likely to come out of all the intrigues is a civil war that will rage for a while. But eventually, Israel will pay and so will those who provide it with unconditional support. One of the most immediate losers, though, will be Tony Blair whose endeavour to resume the political process between the Palestinian and the Israelis before he retires from politics has been dealt a fatal blow by virtue of his support for Abbas's intended coup against the democratically elected government of the Palestinians.

There is only one way out of the current crisis, and that is for the sanctions to be immediately lifted. The immediate consequence of that would be the formation of a national unity government without dictation from any outside power. In the absence of blackmail, Hamas, Fatah and all the other Palestinian factions and political groups within Palestine will meet and agree on the terms and conditions of their unity government whose main functions would be to serve the Palestinians and not the Israelis.

As for the Israelis, their only guarantee of peace and security would be to recognise the legitimate rights of the Palestinians and enter with their elected representatives into negotiations for a long-term truce.

Dr Azzam Tamimi is the director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought (IIPT), London. He has been visiting professor at Kyoto University (2004) and Nagoya University (2006). He has published several books, the most recent of which was on Islam and democracy, Rachid Ghannouchi, Democrat within Islamism (Oxford University Press, New York, 2001). He also co-edited Islam and Secularism in the Middle East (Hurst, London and NY University Press, New York, 2000). Another book, Hamas, the Unwritten Chapters, is due in summer 2006. He writes and lectures on issues related to Islamic political thought and Middle Eastern politics. He is a regular commentator on the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera and makes frequent appearances on a number of other channels, both English and Arabic.

Ending illusions

The writer appears to believe Blair is sincere in his mission here. I'm still laughing. The reporter has an illusion to end as well.

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Leader

Monday December 18, 2006

The Guardian

It speaks volumes about the dire state of the Middle East that a foreign head of government visiting Iraq dare not stray beyond the heavily fortified "green zone" in central Baghdad and that the entire Gaza Strip - the centre of the region's latest escalating crisis - is now strictly out of bounds on security grounds. Tony Blair's pledge that British troops will stay in Iraq "until the job is done" had an unreal air as he stood by Nuri al-Maliki yesterday with the disastrous mayhem of daily life - mass kidnappings, bombings and shootings - continuing unabated, with "terrorists fighting democracy" in Mr Blair's words. Flying on to Jerusalem, the prime minister took with him another unshakeable belief - that he can help find a way out of the deadly impasse in which Palestinians and Israelis are so dangerously trapped.

Mr Blair is right to want to help. The world's most intractable conflict is too volatile to be left alone even if few Arabs believe he is qualified to act as an honest broker. Not only is he George Bush's sole significant ally in Iraq but he also delayed attempts to secure a ceasefire as Israel went on the offensive in Lebanon during the summer war against Hizbullah. The phrase "perfidious Albion" may have gone out of fashion, but the sentiment is alive and well. And the phrase "kick-start" beloved of Whitehall briefings about reviving the peace process seems spectacularly inappropriate - in the sense that kicking a corpse can achieve little.

Yet seeking peace matters especially because too many Americans from Mr Bush downwards still resist the idea of making a significant effort, as recommended in the report by James Baker's Iraq Study Group. It is true, as US neocons like to argue, that resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict will now do nothing for Iraq. If a Palestinian state were somehow to be created tomorrow, Iraq's bloody sectarian war and insurgency would continue. But an Arab-Israeli accommodation could help draw the sting of hatred that so poisons relations between the west and the Muslim world. It would allow Syria to come to terms with Israel and help detach it from its alliance with Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would find it harder to pose as the champion of the Palestinians. If Israel was no longer in permanent conflict with its neighbours it might not need its nuclear weapons.

That could all take a very long time. But the conflict needs resolving, and urgently. Some 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since July when a cross-border raid and the capture of an Israeli soldier ignited a confrontation that has continued ever since, helping trigger Hizbullah's fatal attack. The Hamas government, refusing to formally renounce violence, recognise Israel or accept past peace agreements, has faced a crippling and misguided financial boycott since winning the elections last January, though there is now a ceasefire in Gaza.

The danger now is of a Palestinian civil war, a dire prospect for a people who have suffered so much already. The weekend call by President Mahmoud Abbas for new elections came after he failed to form a unity government. Polls suggest a majority of Palestinians back his choice. It is clearly in their interests to have a functioning administration that can deal with their enemy and end the cruel and debilitating siege of Gaza. But Israel's Ehud Olmert - sounding unusually doveish in a recent speech - has to be made to understand that Palestinian militancy and desperation will not disappear until Palestinians have the prospect of a viable and independent state, not disconnected bantustans separated by ever-expanding Jewish settlements. Mr Blair, concerned for his legacy in the Middle East, must tell the Israeli leader that, and encourage him to offer Mr Abbas something real to work with. Fresh from Baghdad, he might also pass on the thought that if there is one lesson to be drawn from his adventure in Iraq, it is that ordinary people always pay the price for the illusions of politicians.

Hamas Will Not Participate in Elections

Related

Shots Fired at Palestinian Leader's Home
Clashes erupt after Abbas orders poll
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Sunday December 17, 2006 12:01 PM

By IBRAHIM BARZAK

Associated Press Writer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas will not participate in early elections, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Sunday, in a harsh verbal attack on President Mahmoud Abbas.

Haniyeh denounced Abbas' speech, in which he called for a new vote, ``inflammatory.''

``We confirm that the Palestinian government refuses the invitation to early elections because it is unconstitutional and could cause tension among Palestinians,'' Haniyeh said in his first public comments on the matter.

Haniyeh sharply attacked Abbas, saying his Saturday speech calling for early presidential and parliamentary elections was ``inflammatory'' and ``insulting to the sacrifices and the pain of Palestinians everywhere.''

Haniya scoring major funding from Iran for the Palestinian peopleeh does further damage to a forlorn Abbas, while USrael starves the Palestinians

Beyond imagination

Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank

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While Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is still counting on the US and the EU -- and probably Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well -- to "strengthen" his position against the Hamas-led government, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has been scoring success after success in his extended tour of a number of Arab and Muslim states in the region.

On Tuesday, Haniyeh wrapped up a three-day visit to Tehran during which he held high-profile meetings with top Iranian officials, including Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The meetings were more than just courteous encounters between heads of an emerging regional superpower and the leader of a beleaguered government that the US and Israel have been hell-bent on scuttling for its refusal to bow to Zionist- colonialist diktat.

In fact, Iran decided to give Haniyeh more than he had ever dreamt of. In the words of one Palestinian observer, the Iranians treated Haniyeh like a second prodigal son (the first being Hizbullah). On Monday, the Palestinian prime minister, who had earlier referred to Iran as "our strategic depth", termed his visit "historical and very, very successful". "We reached our goals on this visit. We found all the love possible to give to the Palestinian people," Haniyeh said during a brief press conference at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran.

Haniyeh's words, while not completely void of rhetorical indulgence, are more or less accurate. The Iranian government, taking advantage of skyrocketing oil prices, pledged to give the Palestinians a generous package of financial assistance, urgently needed given the eight-month-old harsh blockade imposed on the Palestinian people by the US, the EU, as well as a number of Arab regimes.

According to Haniyeh, the Iranian donation will include a direct cash payment to the Palestinian government of approximately $100 million. In addition, Iran will pay the unpaid salaries of employees of three ministries (Labour, Welfare and Culture) as well as six-month stipends to the estimated 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails. Iran also agreed to pay for the next six months a stipend of $100 a month to 100,000 Palestinian civil servants and the same for 3,000 Palestinian fishermen.

Furthermore, Iran also agreed to build a cultural centre and rebuild some 1,000 demolished houses at a cost of $10,000 per house. Finally, the Islamic republic agreed to purchase 300 new cars for the Palestinian government and purchase Palestinian olive oil at a special higher premium.

According to Haniyeh, Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, whom he met Sunday, personally approved the financial aid.

In short, Haniyeh's visit to Iran appears successful "beyond even the wildest dreams" of Hamas, as one of Haniyeh's political advisors put it during a telephone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly Tuesday. The unexpected generosity of Shia Iran towards a Sunni Islamist movement should be viewed as a rebuff and direct challenge to American hegemony in the region.

The United States, along with Israel and some Arab regimes such as Jordan, has been trying to strangle the Hamas- led government, employing some of the most draconian and sinister measures yet seen, such as bullying Palestinian and Arab banks to refuse to service the government, including transferring Arab and Muslim aid money from abroad into the impoverished and cash-strapped occupied territories.

This harsh and cruel blockade was aimed at achieving two mains goals: First to induce an implosion inside Palestinian society aimed at triggering a popular revolution against Hamas. This goal has not been reached as most Palestinians continue to blame the US and Israel, not Hamas, for their plight. Indeed, Hamas's popularity has not suffered significantly, evidenced in PA reluctance to hold early general elections in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as a means of overcoming the crisis.

The second goal was to discourage Islamist or even Islamic experiments elsewhere in the Muslim world by giving the impression that Islamists in power only bring poverty and hardship to the masses.

However, unlike Fatah's leader Abbas, who some Palestinians accuse of adopting a "feed me today, and kill me tomorrow," political modus operandi, Hamas has been successfully manoeuvring itself out of the treacherous minefield of the harsh blockade, adopting another adage: "I will suffer today so that I may live tomorrow."

Haniyeh's success in Tehran is added to earlier achievements during his visit to Qatar last week when Emir Hamad Ibn Khalifa Al-Thani pledged to pay the salaries of more than 40,000 Palestinian teachers and if necessary cover payments for workers in the public health sector.

According to Hamas officials, Haniyeh's next destination will be Riyadh where he will undoubtedly press his Saudi hosts to at least match Iranian generosity and "adopt" a number of Palestinian ministries for six months or one year. If the Saudis respond positively, this will be the final nail in the coffin of the American-led, Israeli- enforced blockade.

Indeed, it would be politically and ideologically expedient for the Saudi government, which views itself as the ultimate custodian and guardian of Sunni Islam, to give Haniyeh all the assistance and aid he seeks since rebuffing him would push Hamas (and probably the bulk of Palestinians as well) further towards the Iranian-Syrian-Hizbullah axis.

At a loss with regard to their quagmire in Iraq, and given their conspicuous inability to get Israel to abandon its colonialist schemes, the United States seems unable to present any viable and practical plan that would convince the masses, whether in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt for that matter, to give the "peace process" one last chance.

It is even likely that powerless and frustrated allies like Abbas will sooner rather than later understand the foolishness of counting on the present American administration. One Fatah official close to Abbas this week lamented that Americans "have pushed us to this dismal situation".

"They keep saying they want to strengthen the moderates and strengthen Abbas while at the same time they can't even get Ehud Olmert to remove a single roadblock in the West Bank. So why would our people believe Abbas when he tells them to trust America? At least the Iranians are helping us, while the Americans and Israelis are starving us."

Caption: Holding up a banner that reads in Arabic, "Who is the killer" referring to the assassination of three young siblings Monday in Gaza

C a p t i o n 2: Holding up a banner that reads in Arabic, "Who is the killer" referring to the assassination of three young siblings Monday in Gaza

© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved

Al-Ahram Weekly Online

Hamas says Usrael, er, Abbas seeks war

Hamas says Abbas seeks war

By Nidal al-Mughrabi 8 minutes ago

President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces fired on a Hamas rally in the West Bank and gun battles between the two Palestinian factions erupted in Gaza on Friday, prompting a Hamas leader to accuse Abbas of starting a war.

Tensions reached their highest in a decade, fuelling fears the Palestinians were on the verge of civil war after months of failed talks to form a unity government between the ruling Hamas Islamist faction and Abbas's once-dominant Fatah.

"What a war, Mahmoud Abbas, you are launching, first against God, and then against Hamas," Khalil al-Hayya, head of the Hamas faction in parliament, told 100,000 supporters at a rally in Gaza City.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas urged "national unity" in a speech to the crowd but did not explicitly call for calm as he has during previous surges in internal fighting.

At least 32 Hamas supporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah were wounded by gunfire from Abbas's forces, hospital officials said. Several were in critical condition after the fiercest fighting in the occupied West Bank since Hamas came to power in March after trouncing Fatah in elections.

The violence broke out after Hamas, which controls the Palestinian Authority, accused a Fatah strongman and Abbas's presidential guard of trying to kill Haniyeh outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt late on Thursday.

Israel's decision, with U.S. backing, to prevent Haniyeh entering Gaza with $35 million in cash intensified the standoff during which Haniyeh's convoy came under fire.

Israel, the United States and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist organization and cut off direct aid to the Palestinian government after the group rejected demands to recognize the Jewish state and renounce violence.

"We know who opened fire (on Haniyeh's convoy) and they will be punished hard. From now on they will never relax and they will never sleep tight in their homes," said Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar of Hamas.

Fatah accused Hamas of ramping up divisions with its comments. "It increases tensions in the Palestinian area and fuels fanaticism which could lead to a civil war," senior Fatah leader Abdallah Al-Ifranji said in Gaza.

One of Haniyeh's bodyguards was killed in the incident at Rafah. Another bodyguard, the prime minister's son and a political adviser were wounded.

Haniyeh has convened a ministerial meeting later on Friday to discuss the growing tensions.

"(We) will determine a position over how to deal with the existing chaos," he said. "And what happened yesterday at the crossing and the direct assassination attempt to people and to the prime minister."

HARSHEST PERSONAL ATTACK

Speaking at Gaza's packed sports stadium, Hayya said Hamas would not agree to holding an early election or a referendum, a move Abbas could announce in a speech planned for Saturday in an attempt to break the political deadlock.

To cheers from the crowd, which fired automatic weapons in the air, Hayya delivered Hamas's harshest personal attack yet on Abbas. He did not say what steps Hamas would take if Abbas sought to call new elections.

Outside Ramallah's main mosque, Hamas supporters taunted Abbas's security forces. "You look like Israeli soldiers. You are spies," they shouted.

Dressed in riot gear, the Fatah-dominated forces used clubs and rifle-butts to beat back the Hamas demonstrators before shooting broke out. The mosque was damaged.

As the fighting started in the West Bank, Hamas and Fatah forces in Gaza started exchanging fire on the streets.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan accused Fatah strongman and lawmaker Mohammed Dahlan of being behind the attack on Haniyeh's convoy.

Dahlan rejected the allegation. He told Reuters it was part of a Hamas "cover-up" after unidentified militants this week shot dead three young sons of an intelligence official loyal to Abbas outside their school. Haniyeh has condemned the killings.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi and Wafa Amr in Ramallah)