Abbas Ultimatum on Peace [Aljazeera & Haaretz]
[If Abbas can unify the Palestinian position around the prisoners' plan (restoration of the '67 borders and a two state solution), a strong negotiating stance and arguments on its behalf would emerge. We shall see. Once again one hopes for the future -- truth and reconciliation are in the interests of all involved there -- and the rest of us also endangered by the ever lasting death dealing tit for tat contention there. Engaging Hamas in such a negotiating stance would vastly reduce the likelihood of violence from that quarter. Read and think about it. Ed Kent]
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AEDC3E00-D356-4036-AA0A-31D97C51A4B9.htm
Abbas ultimatum on peace
Thursday 25 May 2006, 14:35 Makka Time, 11:35 GMT
Mahmoud Abbas greets delegates to the meeting
The Palestinian president has set a deadline for agreement on seeking a settlement with Israel - and will call a referendum if none is reached.
Mahmoud Abbas told delegates at a meeting attended by Hamas and his own Fatah movement on Tuesday that he would give them up to 10 days to reach agreement before calling for a popular vote.
Abbas said: "If you do not reach agreement by then, I would like to tell you frankly that I will put this document to a referendum. This is not a threat."
The plan was drawn up by members of both Fatah and Hamas who are jailed by Israel.
It calls for resistance to the continuing Israeli occupation, but allows for a negotiated settlement if Israel withdraws fully from West Bank land it has occupied since 1967. It would involve Israel removing all settlements from the West Bank.
It also calls for a unity government and for Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Many Palestinian factions support the plan, but senior Hamas leaders have not yet signed up to it. Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, does not recognize Israel, which is implicit in the proposal being put forward.
National dialogue talks
Abbas gave his ultimatum at a two-day "national dialogue" meeting at which the rival Palestinian factions had pledged to set aside their differences.
The meeting followed weeks of tension between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement since Hamas took office in March. Before Hamas's rise, Fatah was the dominant Palestinian political force.
At the talks, Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister and Hamas leader, said: "Our meeting today aims to cement our national unity."
Members of the Fatah movement
militia take up positions
Haniyeh, who was prevented from addressing the delegates directly in Ramallah in the West Bank because of Israeli travel restrictions, spoke via a videolink from Gaza City.
"I assure our hero prisoners that we will not bring pain into your hearts by having a Palestinian-on-Palestinian struggle... Our difference is with the Israeli occupation and not with any of our brothers," he said.
A power struggle between Haniyeh and Abbas has led to gunfights between their factions in Gaza in the past week.
Haniyeh said: "We do not deny that there are differences but we have always stressed that these differences will only be resolved through continued dialogue and in accordance to the law."
Abbas, speaking in Ramallah, said: "We are here because we are at odds ... The danger has reached every house. Our national project is in severe danger.
"Why should we fight each other when we have ... a bigger and greater problem."
Before the meeting, officials in Ramallah said the focus would be on trying to get all sides to adopt a more "pragmatic" position, and said it would also study the financial constraints imposed by Israel and the West since Hamas came to power.
Compromises
While the dialogue marks an attempt to tackle the power struggle, few expected any breakthroughs.
Hamas officials say they fear the dialogue will be used by some factions to call on the government to step down for failing to run the Palestinian Authority effectively.
Khalil Abu Laila, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said: "If the aim of the dialogue is to show that the government has failed to carry out its duties and must accept a political formula that hints at compromises, then the dialogue will not succeed."
......................................
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719390.html
Abbas: All factions agree on a Palestinian state on 1967 borders
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told a national conference of Palestinian leaders on Thursday that a national consensus exists on the borders of a future Palestinian state.
"All the Palestinians, from Hamas to the Communists, all of us agree we want a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders," he said. "This is what we have, we cannot talk about dreams."
Commenting on the backing the Palestinians would need for establishing their independent state, Abbas said The Arab countries are waiting for this realistic position, to work in harmony, to push the Palestinian cause ahead. They cannot do anything for the Palestinian cause if the [Palestinians] are rejecting everything,"
Referring to the growing rift between his Fatah party and the ruling Hamas, the PA's chairman said internal tensions were jeopardizing their people's aspirations.
"This crisis, everyone is feeling the danger," he said. "Our national plan is in jeopardy."
At the opening of a two-day dialogue between rival factions Fatah and Hamas, Palestinian Prime Minister and senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh also said the parties need to work out a joint Palestinian political platform.
Speaking via videoconferencing from Gaza City, Haniyeh told the delegates convening in Ramallah "the area of agreement in political vision is very close, but we need to strengthen our national unity."
"We affirm our position to unify our political vision, because it will give us the confidence of our people," he said.
Rival Palestinian movements began a two-day 'national dialogue' on Thursday, in an attempt to cobble together an understanding that will put an end to the violence in the Palestinian Authority.
"The national dialogue will focus on reaching a political agreement through adopting a pragmatic position so that there would be a basis for national unity," Yasser Abed Rabo, a senior official from the Fatah movement, said ahead of the meeting.
One initiative set for discussion in the two-day dialogue is a broad new proposal drawn up by various factions, including members of Fatah and Hamas who are imprisoned in Israeli jails.
The initiative urges peaceful resistance and a negotiated settlement if Israel withdraws to the borders that marked Palestinian territory before the 1967 Middle East war. That would involve Israel removing all settlements from the West Bank. Senior Hamas leaders have not signed up to the proposal.
Hamas officials say they fear the dialogue will be used by some factions to call on the government to step down for failing to run the Palestinian Authority effectively.
"If the aim of the dialogue is to show that the government has failed to carry out its duties and must accept a political formula that hints at compromises, then the dialogue will not succeed," said Khalil Abu Laila, a Hamas leader in Gaza.
Azzam al-Ahmad, leader of Fatah's parliamentary bloc, said agreement was unlikely.
"I don't expect practical results especially since Fatah and Hamas are wide apart politically. If Hamas insists on its rigid stances, and pursues policies to monopolize power, the crisis will increase," he said.
Report: Parties reach understandings ahead of talks
Ahead of the talks, Palestinian sources said on Thursday that Fatah and Hamas leaders have reached understandings in relation to the division of power in the government administration and about talks with Israel, Israel Radio reported.
According to the radio, the London-based Al Hayat al Jadida daily newspaper reported that Hamas agreed for Abbas to hold negotiations with Israel based on the position of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Any agreement Abbas reaches with Israel, however, would have to be approved in a referendum, according to the report.
Hamas and Fatah also agreed that the responsibility over the PA's financial administration would be handed over to Abbas, in order to allow the international community to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
The United States and the European Union have stopped to channel humanitarian aid to the Palestinians for fear of the funds being used by Hamas for terror activities.
These understandings are expected to be presented in Thursday's meeting, the radio said.
The radio also reported that senior PA official Mohammed Dahlan told Monte Carlo Radio that Fatah would not object to join a unity government with Hamas. Fatah's condition for joining a Hamas-led government would be for the group to agree to the Arab League peace initiative as a platform for negotiations with Israel.
Representatives of the sides are to meet simultaneously at the Muqata in Ramallah and in Gaza. Palestinian sources said the gaps between the two sides were significant, both in terms of political principles and the sharing of authority in the PA. Representatives are expected to discuss the document of national reconciliation drafted by members of the organizations in Israeli jails.
More casualties despite impending talks
Despite the impending talks, clashes continued Wednesday, resulting in the death of a Hamas activist and senior officer in the PA Preventive Security Service in Gaza. Four more Hamas members were wounded.
The Preventive Security officer who was killed Wednesday was identified as Nabil Hodhod, who was commander of the force in central Gaza. He was killed by a car bomb. No organization took responsibility for the blast, which seriously wounded another man who was with Hodhod.
In the town of Absan, east of Khan Yunis, Hamas activist Salem Kadikh, 24, was shot to death by Fatah activists. In another incident, four Hamas members were abducted and later released after having been shot in the legs. In the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, a bomb was found next to the house of a Hamas activist.
Fatah stages loyalty march
Meanwhile, about 1,500 armed activists identifying themselves as members of Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, marched through the streets of Gaza City to show their "loyalty" to the Hamas government. The marchers held Korans and wore headbands with the Fatah flag.
The demonstrations were organized by Khaled Abu Halal, spokesman for Hamas Interior Minister Saeed Seyam. Abu Halal was a former activist of the Brigades and their main spokesman in Gaza who, together with a number of armed groups from Fatah, crossed the lines to Hamas in a calculated political move following the establishment of the Hamas government.
Spokesmen for Fatah in the Gaza Strip called the demonstration "a hired protest" that did not express the positions of Fatah.
Seyam, who was on his way at the beginning of the week to Damascus via Egypt, was detained by Egyptian officials, according to a report Wednesday in the London-based Arab-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
According to the paper, Seyam, who had coordinated his passage through Egypt with the Egyptian authorities and the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo, was humiliated and detained a number of times, first on the Egyptian side of the border at Rafah, where he was questioned by security officials.
The taxi he was riding in to Cairo was then detained again at roadblocks, where he was asked repeatedly what his business was in Cairo. The report said that when Seyam reached Cairo, the Egyptian authorities at the airport attempted to prevent two of his aides from boarding the plane with him to Damascus.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-led Palestinian government and Abbas's rival Fatah faction said on Wednesday they had agreed to rein in supporters whose armed clashes have stirred fears of civil war.
"The two groups urge their members, grassroots supporters and sympathizers to implement the agreement," Abbas loyalist Samir al-Mashhrawi told reporters following the 6-hour talks attended by Haniyeh.
Mashhrawi said the factions would not harbor nor protect anyone violating the agreement.
Clashes between Hamas and Fatah have become more frequent since the Islamist-led government deployed a new, 3,000-member paramilitary unit last week. Gunmen killed one Hamas member and wounded four others in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Abbas has called for the Hamas-led unit to be disbanded. But Haniyeh said he saw progress in a proposal to incorporate it into the Palestinian Authority's regular police forces.
"I will follow this issue in order to complete the legal procedures to integrate the force in the Palestinian police apparatus," Haniyeh said.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AEDC3E00-D356-4036-AA0A-31D97C51A4B9.htm
Abbas ultimatum on peace
Thursday 25 May 2006, 14:35 Makka Time, 11:35 GMT
Mahmoud Abbas greets delegates to the meeting
The Palestinian president has set a deadline for agreement on seeking a settlement with Israel - and will call a referendum if none is reached.
Mahmoud Abbas told delegates at a meeting attended by Hamas and his own Fatah movement on Tuesday that he would give them up to 10 days to reach agreement before calling for a popular vote.
Abbas said: "If you do not reach agreement by then, I would like to tell you frankly that I will put this document to a referendum. This is not a threat."
The plan was drawn up by members of both Fatah and Hamas who are jailed by Israel.
It calls for resistance to the continuing Israeli occupation, but allows for a negotiated settlement if Israel withdraws fully from West Bank land it has occupied since 1967. It would involve Israel removing all settlements from the West Bank.
It also calls for a unity government and for Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Many Palestinian factions support the plan, but senior Hamas leaders have not yet signed up to it. Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, does not recognize Israel, which is implicit in the proposal being put forward.
National dialogue talks
Abbas gave his ultimatum at a two-day "national dialogue" meeting at which the rival Palestinian factions had pledged to set aside their differences.
The meeting followed weeks of tension between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement since Hamas took office in March. Before Hamas's rise, Fatah was the dominant Palestinian political force.
At the talks, Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister and Hamas leader, said: "Our meeting today aims to cement our national unity."
Members of the Fatah movement
militia take up positions
Haniyeh, who was prevented from addressing the delegates directly in Ramallah in the West Bank because of Israeli travel restrictions, spoke via a videolink from Gaza City.
"I assure our hero prisoners that we will not bring pain into your hearts by having a Palestinian-on-Palestinian struggle... Our difference is with the Israeli occupation and not with any of our brothers," he said.
A power struggle between Haniyeh and Abbas has led to gunfights between their factions in Gaza in the past week.
Haniyeh said: "We do not deny that there are differences but we have always stressed that these differences will only be resolved through continued dialogue and in accordance to the law."
Abbas, speaking in Ramallah, said: "We are here because we are at odds ... The danger has reached every house. Our national project is in severe danger.
"Why should we fight each other when we have ... a bigger and greater problem."
Before the meeting, officials in Ramallah said the focus would be on trying to get all sides to adopt a more "pragmatic" position, and said it would also study the financial constraints imposed by Israel and the West since Hamas came to power.
Compromises
While the dialogue marks an attempt to tackle the power struggle, few expected any breakthroughs.
Hamas officials say they fear the dialogue will be used by some factions to call on the government to step down for failing to run the Palestinian Authority effectively.
Khalil Abu Laila, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said: "If the aim of the dialogue is to show that the government has failed to carry out its duties and must accept a political formula that hints at compromises, then the dialogue will not succeed."
......................................
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/719390.html
Abbas: All factions agree on a Palestinian state on 1967 borders
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told a national conference of Palestinian leaders on Thursday that a national consensus exists on the borders of a future Palestinian state.
"All the Palestinians, from Hamas to the Communists, all of us agree we want a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders," he said. "This is what we have, we cannot talk about dreams."
Commenting on the backing the Palestinians would need for establishing their independent state, Abbas said The Arab countries are waiting for this realistic position, to work in harmony, to push the Palestinian cause ahead. They cannot do anything for the Palestinian cause if the [Palestinians] are rejecting everything,"
Referring to the growing rift between his Fatah party and the ruling Hamas, the PA's chairman said internal tensions were jeopardizing their people's aspirations.
"This crisis, everyone is feeling the danger," he said. "Our national plan is in jeopardy."
At the opening of a two-day dialogue between rival factions Fatah and Hamas, Palestinian Prime Minister and senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh also said the parties need to work out a joint Palestinian political platform.
Speaking via videoconferencing from Gaza City, Haniyeh told the delegates convening in Ramallah "the area of agreement in political vision is very close, but we need to strengthen our national unity."
"We affirm our position to unify our political vision, because it will give us the confidence of our people," he said.
Rival Palestinian movements began a two-day 'national dialogue' on Thursday, in an attempt to cobble together an understanding that will put an end to the violence in the Palestinian Authority.
"The national dialogue will focus on reaching a political agreement through adopting a pragmatic position so that there would be a basis for national unity," Yasser Abed Rabo, a senior official from the Fatah movement, said ahead of the meeting.
One initiative set for discussion in the two-day dialogue is a broad new proposal drawn up by various factions, including members of Fatah and Hamas who are imprisoned in Israeli jails.
The initiative urges peaceful resistance and a negotiated settlement if Israel withdraws to the borders that marked Palestinian territory before the 1967 Middle East war. That would involve Israel removing all settlements from the West Bank. Senior Hamas leaders have not signed up to the proposal.
Hamas officials say they fear the dialogue will be used by some factions to call on the government to step down for failing to run the Palestinian Authority effectively.
"If the aim of the dialogue is to show that the government has failed to carry out its duties and must accept a political formula that hints at compromises, then the dialogue will not succeed," said Khalil Abu Laila, a Hamas leader in Gaza.
Azzam al-Ahmad, leader of Fatah's parliamentary bloc, said agreement was unlikely.
"I don't expect practical results especially since Fatah and Hamas are wide apart politically. If Hamas insists on its rigid stances, and pursues policies to monopolize power, the crisis will increase," he said.
Report: Parties reach understandings ahead of talks
Ahead of the talks, Palestinian sources said on Thursday that Fatah and Hamas leaders have reached understandings in relation to the division of power in the government administration and about talks with Israel, Israel Radio reported.
According to the radio, the London-based Al Hayat al Jadida daily newspaper reported that Hamas agreed for Abbas to hold negotiations with Israel based on the position of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Any agreement Abbas reaches with Israel, however, would have to be approved in a referendum, according to the report.
Hamas and Fatah also agreed that the responsibility over the PA's financial administration would be handed over to Abbas, in order to allow the international community to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
The United States and the European Union have stopped to channel humanitarian aid to the Palestinians for fear of the funds being used by Hamas for terror activities.
These understandings are expected to be presented in Thursday's meeting, the radio said.
The radio also reported that senior PA official Mohammed Dahlan told Monte Carlo Radio that Fatah would not object to join a unity government with Hamas. Fatah's condition for joining a Hamas-led government would be for the group to agree to the Arab League peace initiative as a platform for negotiations with Israel.
Representatives of the sides are to meet simultaneously at the Muqata in Ramallah and in Gaza. Palestinian sources said the gaps between the two sides were significant, both in terms of political principles and the sharing of authority in the PA. Representatives are expected to discuss the document of national reconciliation drafted by members of the organizations in Israeli jails.
More casualties despite impending talks
Despite the impending talks, clashes continued Wednesday, resulting in the death of a Hamas activist and senior officer in the PA Preventive Security Service in Gaza. Four more Hamas members were wounded.
The Preventive Security officer who was killed Wednesday was identified as Nabil Hodhod, who was commander of the force in central Gaza. He was killed by a car bomb. No organization took responsibility for the blast, which seriously wounded another man who was with Hodhod.
In the town of Absan, east of Khan Yunis, Hamas activist Salem Kadikh, 24, was shot to death by Fatah activists. In another incident, four Hamas members were abducted and later released after having been shot in the legs. In the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, a bomb was found next to the house of a Hamas activist.
Fatah stages loyalty march
Meanwhile, about 1,500 armed activists identifying themselves as members of Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, marched through the streets of Gaza City to show their "loyalty" to the Hamas government. The marchers held Korans and wore headbands with the Fatah flag.
The demonstrations were organized by Khaled Abu Halal, spokesman for Hamas Interior Minister Saeed Seyam. Abu Halal was a former activist of the Brigades and their main spokesman in Gaza who, together with a number of armed groups from Fatah, crossed the lines to Hamas in a calculated political move following the establishment of the Hamas government.
Spokesmen for Fatah in the Gaza Strip called the demonstration "a hired protest" that did not express the positions of Fatah.
Seyam, who was on his way at the beginning of the week to Damascus via Egypt, was detained by Egyptian officials, according to a report Wednesday in the London-based Arab-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
According to the paper, Seyam, who had coordinated his passage through Egypt with the Egyptian authorities and the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo, was humiliated and detained a number of times, first on the Egyptian side of the border at Rafah, where he was questioned by security officials.
The taxi he was riding in to Cairo was then detained again at roadblocks, where he was asked repeatedly what his business was in Cairo. The report said that when Seyam reached Cairo, the Egyptian authorities at the airport attempted to prevent two of his aides from boarding the plane with him to Damascus.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-led Palestinian government and Abbas's rival Fatah faction said on Wednesday they had agreed to rein in supporters whose armed clashes have stirred fears of civil war.
"The two groups urge their members, grassroots supporters and sympathizers to implement the agreement," Abbas loyalist Samir al-Mashhrawi told reporters following the 6-hour talks attended by Haniyeh.
Mashhrawi said the factions would not harbor nor protect anyone violating the agreement.
Clashes between Hamas and Fatah have become more frequent since the Islamist-led government deployed a new, 3,000-member paramilitary unit last week. Gunmen killed one Hamas member and wounded four others in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Abbas has called for the Hamas-led unit to be disbanded. But Haniyeh said he saw progress in a proposal to incorporate it into the Palestinian Authority's regular police forces.
"I will follow this issue in order to complete the legal procedures to integrate the force in the Palestinian police apparatus," Haniyeh said.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 8:58 AM
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