What Is
Behind the Hamas-Fatah Reconciliation?
By Ramzy
Baroud
Update
-
Hamas, Fatah sign
reconciliation agreement in Cairo
October 12,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- Egypt’s enthusiasm to arbitrate between feuding
Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, is not the
outcome of a sudden awakening of conscience. Cairo
has, in fact, played a destructive role in
manipulating Palestinian division to its favor,
while keeping the Rafah border crossing under lock
and key.
However,
the Egyptian leadership is clearly operating in
coordination with Israel and the United States.
While the language emanating from Tel Aviv and
Washington is quite guarded regarding the ongoing
talks between the two Palestinian parties, if read
carefully, their political discourse is not entirely
dismissive of the possibility of having Hamas join a
unity government under Mahmoud Abbas’ direction.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments
in early October validate this assertion. He did not
categorically reject a Hamas-Fatah government, but
demanded, according to the
Times of Israel,
that “any future Palestinian government must disband
the terror organization’s (Hamas’) armed wing, sever
all ties with Iran and recognize the State of
Israel.”
Egyptian
President, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, too, would like to
see a weaker Hamas, a marginalized Iran and an
agreement that puts Egypt back at the center of
Middle East diplomacy.
Under the
auspices of the Egyptian dictator, Egypt’s once
central role in the region’s affairs has faded into
a marginal one.
But the
Hamas-Fatah reconciliation is giving el-Sisi a
window of opportunity to rebrand his country’s image
which has, in recent years, been tarnished by brutal
crackdowns on his country’s opposition and his
miscalculated military interventions in Libya, Yemen
and elsewhere.
In
September, on the sidelines of the United Nations
General Assembly conference in New York,
el-Sisi met Netanyahu
publicly for the first time. The exact nature of
their talks was never fully revealed, although
media reports
pointed that the Egyptian leader has attempted to
sway Netanyahu into accepting a Hamas-Fatah unity
deal.
In
his speech at the UNGA, el-Sisi also made a
passionate,
impromptu appeal
for peace. He spoke of an ‘opportunity’ that must be
used to achieve the coveted Middle East peace
agreement and called on US President Donald Trump to
“write a new page of history of mankind” by taking
advantage of that supposed opportunity.
It is
difficult to imagine that el-Sisi, with limited
influence and sway over Israel and the US, is
capable of, single-handedly, creating the needed
political environment for reconciliation between
Palestinian factions.
Several
such attempts have been tried, but failed in the
past, most notably in 2011 and in 2014. As early as
2006, though, the George W. Bush Administration
forbade any such reconciliation, using threats and
withholding of funds to ensure Palestinians remained
divided. The Barack Obama Administration followed
suit, ensuring Gaza’s isolation and Palestinian
division, while it also supported Israel’s policies
in this regard.
Unlike previous administrations, Donald Trump has
kept expectations regarding the brokering of a peace
agreement low. However, from the outset, he took
Israel’s side, promised to relocate the US embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and appointed a
hardliner,
David Friedman, a
Zionist par-excellence, as US ambassador to Israel.
No doubt,
last June, Trump signed a temporary order to keep
the US embassy in Tel Aviv, disappointing many of
his pro-Israel fans, but the move is by no means an
indication of a serious change of policies.
“I
want to give that (a plan for peace) a shot before I
even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem,”
Trump said in a
televised interview recently. “If we can make peace
between the Palestinians and Israel, I think it’ll
lead to ultimate peace in the Middle East, which has
to happen.”
Judging by
historical precedents, it is quite obvious that
Israel and the US have given a green light to
Palestinian reconciliation with a clear objective in
mind. For its part, Israel wants to see Hamas break
away from Iran and abandon armed resistance, while
the US wants to get ‘a shot’ at playing politics in
the region, with Israeli interests being paramount
to any outcome.
Egypt,
being the recipient of generous US military aid, is
the natural conduit to guide the Hamas-Fatah
reconciliation component of the new strategy.
What
strongly suggests that powerful players are behind
the reconciliation efforts is how smooth the entire
process has been so far, in complete contrast with
years of failed efforts and repeated agreements with
disappointing outcomes.
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What
primarily seemed like another futile round of talks
hosted by Egypt, was soon followed by more: first,
an initial understanding, followed by a Hamas
agreement to dissolve its administrative committee
that it formed to manage Gaza’s affairs; then, a
successful visit by the National Consensus
Government to Gaza and, finally, an endorsement of
the terms of national reconciliation by the two most
powerful Fatah bodies: The Fatah Revolutionary
Council and the Central Committee.
Since
Fatah controls the Palestinian Authority (PA), the
latter endorsement
advocated by Mahmoud Abbas was an important
milestone needed to push the process forward, as
both Hamas and Fatah readied themselves for more
consequential talks in Cairo.
Unlike previous agreements, the current one will
allow Hamas to actively participate in the new unity
government. Top Hamas official, Salah
Bardawil confirmed this
in a statement. However, Bardawil also insisted that
Hamas will not lay down its arms, and resistance to
Israel is not negotiable.
US-Israel-Egyptian power play aside, this is,
indeed, the crux of the matter. Understandably,
Palestinians are keen to achieve national unity, but
that unity must be predicated on principles that are
far more important than the self-serving interests
of political parties.
Moreover,
speaking of – or even achieving – unity without
addressing the travesties of the past, and without
agreeing on a national liberation strategy for the
future in which resistance is the foundation, the
Hamas-Fatah unity government will prove as
insignificant as all other governments, which
operated with no real sovereignty and, at best,
questionable popular mandates.
Worse
still, if the unity is guided by tacit US support,
an Israeli nod and an Egyptian self-serving agenda,
one can expect that the outcome would be the
furthest possible one from the true aspirations of
the Palestinian people, who remain unimpressed by
the imprudence of their leaders.
While
Israel invested years in maintaining the Palestinian
rift, Palestinian factions remained blinded by
pitiful personal interests and worthless “control”
over a militarily occupied land.
It should
be made clear that any unity agreement that pays
heed to the interest of factions at the expense of
the collective good of the Palestinian people is a
sham; even if it initially ‘succeeds’, in the long
term it will fail, since Palestine is bigger than
any individual, faction or a regional power seeking
Israel’s validation and US handouts.
Ramzy
Baroud is a journalist, author and editor
of Palestine Chronicle. His forthcoming book is ‘The
Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’ (Pluto Press,
London). Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies
from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident
Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and
International Studies, University of California
Santa Barbara. His website is
www.ramzybaroud.net
.
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