Mahmoud Abbas's visit: What's at stake?
In Washington, the Palestinian leader calls for more support. In West Bank, Hamas cries foul.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
demanded the US show clear commitment towards implementing the "road map" peace plan, on his first official visit to Washington, reports
BBC.
"We want a clear political position for the implementation of the roadmap and economic support," Mr Abbas said.
The Israeli daily
Ha'aretz reports that, in his meeting with President Bush Thursday, Abbas will "
focus his efforts on ensuring that Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in August is not accompanied by the expansion of settlements."
In an opinion piece published in
The Boston Globe, Daniel Levy – who served as a policy adviser in the Israeli prime minister's office, and was the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative – argues that Abbas largely has been "showered with rhetoric,
neglected on policy."
...rather than being encouraged along this path of nonviolence and democratic reform, Abbas finds himself undermined at every turn by Israel, his supposed "partner for peace." Congress has joined in by essentially preventing the disbursement of US aid to Abbas's Palestinian Authority.
Mr. Levy proposes the US take a more active role in supporting Abbas.
The required response demands a degree of US commitment that has so far been absent. It means complementing security and economic coordination with political reengagement. Washington cannot be a substitute for the partner that Abbas has not yet found in Israel. But in Washington Abbas can perhaps find a partner for pursuing conflict resolution and not just management to realize that viable two-state vision and avoid more suffering on all sides. A
report from the Belgium-based
International Crisis Group makes similar points. "Enjoying international support [former Palestinian leader] Yasser Arafat could only dream of at the end of his rule, Abbas has been no more successful than Arafat in changing Israeli policies or fundamentally altering the US approach."
The signals from the White House will help Palestinians decide whether Abbas's agenda deserves continued support. Formal assurances and credible commitments to a process -- what it will achieve, and when -- are critical to bolster him.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the US and others are
looking to bolster Abbas in hopes that militants groups don't gain too much standing in upcoming legislative elections.
Hamas looks as if it could challenge the traditional dominance of Abbas's secular Fatah organization in the upcoming Legislative Council elections. Thus an international press is on - including in the US - to bolster Abbas and moderate, reformist forces. But,
Abbas wants to postpone the elections until November, hoping to regain some of the popular support his ruling Fatah party has lost, said Mohammed Ghazal, the Hamas spokesman in the West Bank Wednesday. An aide to Abbas confirmed that he wants to postpone the elections, reports
The Associated Press.
"The delay could inflame tensions between Fatah and Hamas, already high over disputed results in a recent round of local elections," according to
AP.
Ha'aretz reports that "Hamas has
threatened to resume attacks on Israelis as a result of the dispute" over postponing elections.
Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon vowed Tuesday to cooperate with Abbas, "so long as we do not risk our security." Sharon also pledged to
release 400 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, a move the Palestinians dismissed as "propaganda".
Palestinian Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Sofyan Abu Zayda said Wednesday that the announcement is a
trick to avoid any US pressure, reports
Xinhua.
Also...
•
Singapore tries to calm the Japan-China diplomatic dispute (
The New York Times)
•
Hamas shows it can cooperate with a `collaborator' (
Ha'aretz)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Matthew Clark.
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