UK Arabic Paper Says Palestinian President Taking “Serious Gamble”

Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi website on 16 June

[Editorial: "Fatah and Hamas: The Atmosphere is Prepared for Dialogue"]

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s step to dissolve the national unity government and charge Salam Fayyad with forming an emergency government has gained the support of US President George Bush, the international Quartet, and most European and Arab governments. However, the pressing question concerns the next step that these parties will take in the coming few days.

The United States’ and the international Quartet’s refusal to acknowledge the national unity government in addition to the ongoing financial and diplomatic embargo on the Hamas ministers have played a major role in exploding the situation in the Gaza Strip and in the success of the extremist wing in the movement to declare war against and seize control over the security apparatuses that are affiliated with the [Palestinian] Authority.

President Abbas has embarked on a serious gamble by all standards. Obviously, dissolving Isma’il Haniyah’s government and replacing it with an emergency government have widened the gap between the two rival factions, which could result in an almost final estrangement.

The Hamas Movement has rejected the decision to dissolve the government. In fact, one of its spokesmen has asked Salam Fayyad, who has been entrusted with the task of forming an emergency government, to decline this post and remain neutral. The situation is proceeding towards the formation of two parallel governments, one in the West Bank which enjoys Western, Arab, US, and Israeli recognition, and another in the Gaza Strip which is facing an embargo by most if not all of the aforementioned parties. In the recent past up until the Gaza incidents, there was a government with two heads, but now there is an authority with two governments.

Khalid Mish’al, head of the Hamas Movement’s Political Bureau, has said that the attacks by Hamas elements on the security authority institutions in the Gaza Strip were not directed against the Fatah organization, but against a small group that has obstructed the security plan and stood as an obstacle to stability. He proposed the resumption of dialogue with Fatah under an “Arab umbrella.”

Certainly, a big rift has occurred, and it has become difficult to bridge it. Hamas’s victory in Gaza could be the beginning of a long series of battles because it could pave the way for transforming the clear political US-Western support for Abbas into military support in preparation for another and perhaps even bloodier confrontation.

The United States’ clear bias towards Abbas could entrench the Palestinian rift, especially if it is translated into new arms deals and if the frustration of some Fatah elements is exploited to recruit them once against not against Israel but against Hamas. This will divert the Palestinian people and their resistance from their main target, the occupation.

The resumption of dialogue between the two poles of the Palestinian political movement, Fatah and Hamas, is the only way to get out of the catastrophe. Ahmad Abd-al-Rahman, President Abbas’s political adviser, made a grave mistake when he rejected such dialogue on the pretext of vetoing any talks with what he described as “coupists.”

The Arab countries must seriously intervene to host such dialogue, because it seems that at present there is a better chance for it to succeed now that the security duality in the Gaza Strip has been settled, and the state of the “security lords,” who have institutionalized corruption and who are fully affiliated with foreign parties particularly the United States, has been brought to an end.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.