Saturday, October 17, 2009

Celebrate "Palestinian Unity" Now!


Hamas to Reply on Palestinian Unity Deal Sunday as Abbas Eyes Vote

Al-Manar

COMMENT

Here is a possible course of action, seeing the timid, vacillating and contradictory responses from Hamas so far. Hamas has definitely felt the heat from other resistance groups, specially Islamic Jihad, which explicitly rejected the Cairo deal. Hamas had originally accepted the deal and was planning to sign it, when the Goldstone affair hit the fan.

Hamas bought some time for things to cool down. Now with the acceptance of the Goldstone report in the Human Rights Council of the UN, and the celebrations of "victory" in the Palestinian street, the Traitor has been partially rehabilitated.

Hamas kept saying that it only had some "reservations" about the deal, but it was keen to see the deal succeed! Talk about doublespeak. Cairo says the deal has to be signed as is or else the noose on Gaza will be tightened further, if that is possible.

Mr. Abu Marzouq (number two man) from Hamas is flying to Cairo tomorrow to give Cairo a document outlining Hamas' "reservations." My guess is that, he will also sign the deal, perhaps without fanfare and under the cover of night. Cairo will help him out by saying that it understands Hamas' reservations, but it is pleased that Hamas has finally signed the deal.

With Fatah having signed the deal already, what are we waiting for? Time to celebrate! Open that champagne bottle, now! But wait, Mr. Mishaal can't be seen drinking in public; make that apple cider for him.

"17/10/2009 Egypt announced on Saturday the latest postponement of a reconciliation agreement between rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah was due to "inappropriate conditions." The announcement came after Fatah unilaterally signed the pact in Cairo on Thursday without reservations.

However, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum told AFP on Saturday that his party will hand its response on Sunday to Egyptians mediating a Palestinian unity deal. He added that a Hamas delegation will travel to Cairo on Sunday, but refused to say whether the movement would accept the proposal.

The response "will be taken within a framework aimed at guaranteeing the success of the Egyptian efforts" to heal the deep rift between Hamas and the secular Fatah movement, Barhoum said.

According to the Damascus-based official, one of the reservations is about the U.S. demand that the unity deal follow the conditions of the Quartet, which include recognition of the “State of Israel”, acknowledging earlier agreements and renouncing “terrorism”.

Egypt, which has been attempting to broker the deal, had initially planned for the sides to sign the accord on Thursday. The country has yet to set a new date for a signing ceremony. Hamas' deputy political leader, Abu Marzouk, said: "Today the Hamas leadership will relay to Egypt a document containing the necessary reservations and amendments for the Egyptian document."

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Saturday that he would announce the date for the Palestinian elections on October 25. The embattled Palestinian president said earlier this week that if the two factions did not reach agreement he would call for elections on January 24 instead of the June 28 date in the Cairo plan.

Palestinian Basic Law mandates that a new general election be called at least three months before the end of the sitting parliament's mandate, a deadline which falls on October 25.

Abbas's four-year term expired as president in last January, but Fatah has cited provisions in the constitution that require presidential and parliamentary elections to be held together to justify his remaining in office......"

1 comment:

david said...

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