Encountering peace: Further from peace, closer to reconciliation (Gershon Baskin, Jerusalem Post)

[Gershon Baskin]

<http://www.jpost.com/> jpost

Print Edition

Photo by: REUTERS/Mohamed Al Hams/Handout

Further from peace, closer to reconciliation

By GERSHON BASKIN
28/11/2011

If given a clear choice, I have no doubt that Palestinians will chose peace,
but that is not the choice given to them at the moment.

Hamas and Fatah just ended another round of talks in Cairo on what they call
reconciliation. Both sides are reporting that progress was made, but they
have not yet reached the point of agreement on several key issues. In May of
this year Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas politburo
chief Khaled Mashaal signed an agreement orchestrated by Egyptian
intelligence. Initially the deal was described as a landmark reconciliation
pact aimed at ending their bitter four-year rift.

In fact, the deal was essentially a letter of intention to negotiate a
process of reconciliation that would lead to the reunification of the West
Bank and Gaza into one territorial unit under one governing power – as was
designated in the Oslo agreements. They agreed to negotiate the
establishment of a government of technocrats in which there would be neither
Fatah nor Hamas representation. The job of that government would be to begin
the process of the reconstruction of Gaza and to prepare for new national
elections for president and parliament within one year.

The document and the process avoided dealing with the really difficult
issues such as the reintegration of the Palestinian security forces into one
single force under one political authority.

Hamas has opposed the idea of security coordination with Israel as it is
practiced by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. There, the PA has
systematically arrested Hamas militants and activists over the past four
years and longer. The Gaza forces under the leadership of Ahmad Ja’abri and
the Izaddin al-Kassam brigades used their brute force against Fatah security
personnel in June 2007 and forced them to flee Gaza.

Neither Fatah nor Hamas can today envision surrendering power to the other
or reintegrating their forces.

The “on the surface” difficulty that has been discussed in the media focused
on the demand of Hamas to remove Salam Fayyad from the position of prime
minister in the new government. Fayyad is an independent and has never been
a member of Fatah or Hamas, but Hamas refuses to accept him as prime
minister because he is behind the campaign which has led to the arrest of
hundreds of Hamas activists in the West Bank.

Fatah, too, is not a big fan of Fayyad because he successfully closed the
money faucet to Fatah coffers, but Abbas knows that Fayyad is a key to
continuing to receive international donor funds because Fayyad wields the
trust of the western countries.

Abbas has also demanded that Hamas adhere to his policy of no more violence.
Abbas rejects the armed struggle, was opposed to the militarization of the
second intifada under Arafat, and strongly rejects the firing of rockets
from Gaza at the Israeli civilian population. Hamas’s adherence to a real
cease-fire is a precondition for Abbas to advance the reconciliation
process.

HAMAS IS going through real change. The winds of the Arab spring have
crossed the Sinai, navigated through Philidephi Corridor, flowed into the
underground tunnels and have emerged in Gaza.

Hamas has already been influenced by the changes in the Arab world. They are
de facto part of the opposition to the Assad regime in Syria. Tehran offered
the organization the opportunity to relocate operations to Iran, but Hamas
turned down the offer. Iran has ceased their funding and arming of Hamas.
Egypt’s doors are now open to Hamas and soon they will also probably be
operating out of Jordan as well – two countries with peace treaties with
Israel.

There are demands inside Hamas for democratic elections for their ruling
institutions, including the secret Shura Council. Hamas has been enforcing a
cease-fire and has been preventing (not with full success) rocket fire into
Israel. At this last round of Fatah-Hamas talks in Cairo, Hamas has
apparently agreed to accept the adoption of non-violent popular resistance
against Israel rather than active violent aggression.

What is happening in Hamas today is a reaffirmation of something that one of
the Hamas ideologues explained to me several years ago and I rejected
because it went against everything that I knew about Hamas. He said that
Hamas is a Palestinian nationalist movement with religious Islamic roots.
Hamas’s goals, he said, are the establishment of a Palestinian state that
will be based on Islamic jurisprudence – on Sharia, Islamic law, but it is
first and foremost a political movement. I had been taught, and I understood
that Hamas was first and foremost a religious movement – an Islamic movement
which wanted a pan-Islamic caliphate in the Middle East.

This is incorrect. Hamas’s political evolution is proving that it is the
first and not the latter. Religious movements don’t change with the rapid
pace of development that is happening in Hamas today.

HAMAS IS not joining the peace camp and still rejects Israel’s right to
exist. It is opposed to the idea of a peace treaty with Israel. But
according to what I have learned, Hamas has agreed that Abbas can continue
to try to negotiate with Israel if Israel agrees to freeze settlement
building, and if negotiations are based on the Obama parameters of the 1967
borders with agreed territorial swaps.

Abbas has apparently given up hope regarding the possibilities of positive
negotiations with the Netanyahu- Lieberman government, so much so that Hamas
feels no threat to their basic positions. They are skeptical that
negotiations will even take place.

There is no doubt that the further the peace process seems from the view in
the muqata’a (presidential headquarters) in Ramallah, the more likely the
reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas will progress. Hamas leaders
have told Abbas that he should convey to the Israelis that there is no
reason for Israel to feel threatened by Palestinian reconciliation. They say
that when there are two Palestinian governments there is no one to negotiate
with because who speaks for the Palestinians?

And when there will be one Palestinian government representing all of the
Palestinian people, Israel responds by saying that it couldn’t possibly
negotiate with a government in which Hamas takes part. Very convenient.

If the Palestinian reconciliation process continues with the adoption of
more practical policies by the Hamas leadership and rank and file, then the
process will have positive outcomes for Israel and for the Palestinians. It
is time for the Palestinians to go back to the electorate. But Israel should
understand that Palestinian elections without a clear choice between peace
and conflict will likely end with more radical forces once again winning
those elections.

If given a clear choice, I have no doubt that Palestinians will chose peace,
but that is not the choice given to them at the moment. Like in Israel, the
public perception is that we need leaders who are better at resistance than
at peacemaking.

The writer is the Co-CEO of IPCRI, the Israel Palestine Center for Research
and Information and a radio host on All for Peace Radio.

Gershon Baskin, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 9321, Jerusalem 91092
Cellphone: +972-(0)52-238-1715
<mailto:gersho...@gmail.com> gersho...@gmail.com

gershonbaskin on twitter

gershonbas on skype

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
אנא חישבו על הסביבה לפני הדפסת הדוא"ל הזה
الرجاء: فكّروا بجودة البيئة قبل طباعة هذه الرسالة الالكتروني