Rival Palestinian factions agree to form coalition government

The unelected Abbas has come to an agreement with Hamas to form a power sharing government in Palestine, although it is still unclear if this will be enough to make the Quartet lift their sanctions of Palestine - imposed after the people there democratically elected a Hamas government.

After two days of talks in Mecca, the leaders of Hamas and Fatah agreed a list of ministers for a new national unity cabinet and called for a halt to factional fighting that has claimed more than 100 lives in the occupied territories in recent weeks. The deal appeared to have averted a slide into civil war. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, described it as a new era.

Hamas, the Islamic militant movement voted into government a year ago, appeared to have the upper hand in the agreement. Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister and Hamas leader, will stay on and an independent candidate, selected by Hamas and approved by Fatah, will be given the key position of interior minister, which includes control of the thousands of security forces.

Israel and the Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the EU, the UN, the US and Russia - had insisted that to lift an international boycott the new government had to meet three conditions: recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and acceptance of previous peace deals. Before the Mecca agreement it appeared that both Israel and the Quartet were reluctant to accept any flexibility on those requirements. However, last night it appeared that the deal included no explicit recognition of Israel, but agreed only to "respect" past peace agreements.

Before the meeting, Fatah officials said they were looking to Hamas to sign up to a stronger acceptance of previous peace deals, either agreeing to "honour" them or to "commit" to them.

Israel have not yet said whether or not it accepts this new deal, although a spokesman did say that it expected any new government to agree to all the terms laid down by the Quartet. Unless Israel agree to recognise the new government then it is unlikely that the crippling international sanctions on Palestine will be lifted.

The deal appears to be based on the Prisoners Document.

The document consists of 18 points, and calls for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders and the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza strip. The initial version of the document has generally been interpreted as implicitly recognizing Israel's right to exist, as opposed to the official Hamas platform, which calls for Israel's destruction.

Of course, the recognition of Israel in the Prisoners Document is implicit rather than explicit, so the Israelis can be expected to find fault with this and to insist that the sanctions are not lifted.

“I wonder why the issue of recognizing Israel is the key to everything?” Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas government, said earlier Thursday. “We are interested to end the siege but not at any cost.”

He added: “We try to balance between our Palestinian national constraints and our opening up to the international community. Israel is not ready to deal with any Palestinian side unless the Palestinians deal with the Israeli conditions.”

Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Mr. Olmert, said, “Israel expects the new Palestinian government to respect all three of the international community’s principles,” but she declined to say whether the new Palestinian government had met any or all of those benchmarks. Israeli officials say that would require further evaluation.

It is ironic that the Israelis are insisting that any future Palestinian government should recognise Israel's right to exist whilst the Israelis have yet to concede any similar right for a future state of Palestine.

In this way the Israeli's appear to be adopting a similar stance to the one adopted by the US regarding any future talks with Iran. They insist that their opponents agree to all of their terms before any negotiations can take place. In other words, surrender and we'll talk.

This is very good way of avoiding any agreement whilst convincing oneself that one is being reasonable. However, everyone knows that agreement can only come through both sides making compromises.

By implicitly recognising Israel through it's embrace of the Prisoners Document, Hamas are taking a huge step. This is a serious compromise on their previous position.

If the Israelis reject this and insist on more, then it can be concluded that the Israelis are not interested in peace.

Israel have long sought the destruction of Hamas, just as Hamas have long sought the destruction of Israel. Neither will ever succeed in their aims.

However, the Palestinians have come to a power sharing deal that ignores the fact that Hamas were democratically elected by the Palestinian people. What more can we ask of these people?

It is time the Israelis started dealing with the Palestinian government that exists, rather than insisting on some government that they feel will be "reasonable", by which they mean a government that will accede to Israel's requests as it pertains to illegal settlements on the West Bank.

The Palestinians have already effectively ignored the democratic wishes of their people in order to meet the demands of Israel, the US and the EU. We can ask no more of them. We should recognise this historic compromise and lift the sanctions now.

We have already shown our disdain of democracy by refusing to recognise the democratic choice of the Palestinian people, are we now to compound that idiocy by refusing to recognise a Palestinian compromise? If we do so, then we will find ourselves playing the Israeli game of the last forty years, where they claim to be desperately seeking a peace that always just eludes them. And, after forty years, one is entitled to ask, "Just how serious they are about this peace they claim to be seeking?"

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tag: Israel, Palestine, Road Map, Hamas, peace talks