Gaza `Coup’ Stirs Alarm at Summit
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt _ Israeli gestures of support for beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a regional summit here Monday of Israel’s Arab neighbors were overshadowed by fresh reminders of the radicalism that has taken hold in Hamas-controlled Gaza and threatens to pervade the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to release 250 prisoners and promote a fresh push for peace at a gathering attended by Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, part of an effort encouraged by the U.S. to shore up the emergency Fatah government installed in the West Bank after the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip this month.
The high-profile gathering, intended also to bolster the standing of America’s moderate Mideast allies, was preceded, however, by threats and gestures from extremist groups that underscored the deepening divide between radicals and moderates across the region.
In a videotaped message, al-Qaida’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Muslims around the world to take up arms in support of Hamas, warning of an upcoming region wide fight in which Egypt and Saudi Arabia would wage war on Hamas.
“Provide them (Hamas) with money, do your best to get it there, break the siege imposed on them by crusaders and Arab leader traitors,” said al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, in an echo of earlier appeals to Muslims to wage war in Iraq. “Facilitate weapons smuggling from neighboring countries.”
The Hamas-linked group holding a kidnapped Israeli pilot broadcast a recording of him and the al-Qaida-inspired group holding BBC reporter Alan Johnston issued a videotape showing Johnston wearing what appeared to be an explosives vest.
The separate messages appeared designed to upstage the gathering convened by Mubarak, reflecting growing concerns among moderate Arab leaders that the Hamas victory will crush any hope of making peace with Israel and instead inspire extremists who threaten their regimes.
Both Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab nations to have made peace with Israel, are struggling to contain ascendant Islamist movements with strong Hamas sympathies, and both fear a spillover of radicalism across their borders.
Addressing reporters before the brief summit, Abbas urged Israel to turn what he termed the Hamas “coup” in Gaza into a renewed push for peace that would include a revived effort to resolve the so-called final status issues of refugees, borders and water.
The call was echoed by King Abdullah, who said the seizure of Gaza should serve as “an incentive” to moderate leaders in the region to finally seek a solution to the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict.
Olmert, who earlier met one-on-one with Abbas for the first time in two months, promised that Israel would seize the moment. “There is an opportunity to renew the peace process and there is a serious will on the part of all the stakeholders,” he said. “I do not intend to let this opportunity pass.”
In addition to the prisoner release, which will apply only to Fatah prisoners and those “without blood on their hands,” Olmert also promised unspecified measures to ease some of the restrictions on travel and commerce that have strangled life in the West Bank _ a key Palestinian demand _ and said Israel would allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.
“We do not want to punish the people who live in Gaza because a terrorist organization seized Gaza,” he said.
Expectations for the summit had been low, and the gestures lifted spirits somewhat in a region stricken with gloom by the specter of Palestinians killing one another in what amounted to a mini-civil war.
“It’s given a window of hope in an atmosphere of despair,” said Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the Cairo-based Al Ahram Center for Politics and Strategic Studies.
But the promises nonetheless fell short of Palestinian demands and may not go far enough to significantly reverse Fatah’s flagging fortunes.
Olmert did not mention the crucial final status issues that have stymied all past efforts to seek peace, and instead revived a promise to meet with Abbas every two weeks to further explore ways of proceeding with a new peace process.
Though a prisoner release was a high priority for the Abbas delegation, with 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody, the release of only 250 isn’t likely to affect support for Hamas.
Amid the strident condemnations of Hamas by both Abbas and Olmert, Egypt’s Mubarak struck a tone of caution, warning that there could be no solution to the overall problem without negotiations between the two rival Palestinian factions controlling the two geographically separate and now politically divided segments.
“Our deliberations today affirmed the parallel need to end disagreements and unify the Palestinian ranks through dialogue,” he said.
One of Egypt’s biggest fears is that chaos in Gaza will spill across its border, and that without progress toward a viable Palestinian state, Egypt will find itself having to shoulder responsibility for the strip of territory.
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(c) 2007, Chicago Tribune.
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