Palestinian deal faces global critique

A power-sharing pact may end Gaza fighting, but will Israel and the US recognize its terms?

By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the February 12, 2007 edition

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JERUSALEM - The threat of a Palestinian civil war is slowly subsiding, following a power-sharing deal reached in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, late last week that should pave the way for the leading Hamas party to work in sync with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who belongs to rival Fatah.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that the chances of a Palestinian peace with Israel are quickly ascending, nor that the international community's marginalization of the Hamas-led government will come to an end.

The Quartet, which includes the US, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia, has not indicated thus far that it would relax the sanctions it put in place a year ago for dealing with a Palestinian Authority (PA) under the leadership of Hamas, the Islamist militant group that calls for Israel's destruction. To be an accepted player, the international body said, Hamas should first renounce terrorism, accept previously signed peace agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist.

Whether or not the Palestinians are opening a new chapter or simply turning the page in the same playbook is a matter open to widely differing interpretations and viewed with uncertainty.

From the Palestinian point of view, this is a moment that international policymakers should welcome, in large part by showing a keenness to recognize the new Palestinian government-to-be and to engage it by resuming donor aid and full-fledged diplomatic relations.

Senior Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri told Reuters that a unity government would receive "full Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic legitimacy." As a result, he said, "the entire international community, the Zionist enemy, and the US administration" would have no choice but to deal with this new reality, the news agency reported.

But from the Israeli point of view, this is a time to carefully examine what has changed, and to weigh the decisions of whether Israel, or even parties in the Quartet, is willing to sit at a negotiating table that includes Hamas.

The positive impact of the Mecca pact is already being felt in the West Bank and Gaza, where more than 90 Palestinians have been killed since December as gunmen and kidnapping gangs loyal to either Hamas or Fatah, the mainstream faction of the PLO, set out to establish supremacy in the territories.

But what is far less certain is how the agreement will be received in the weeks to come, regionally and internationally. Moreover, the deal sealed in Saudi Arabia comes at a time when both Mr. Abbas and the Israeli leader, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, are in relatively weak positions vis-á-vis domestic support. The next battle, therefore, may be one of public relations: How Abbas and Mr. Olmert will sell the Mecca agreement to their respective audiences.

"Israel neither rejects nor accepts the agreements," Olmert said in remarks he made at his weekly cabinet meeting. "At this stage, we, like the international community, are learning what was exactly accomplished and what was said."

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