Israel Matzav

The 'peace process' is dead and buried

Fatah and Hamas agreed on Monday that they would reconcile, with 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen serving as temporary 'Prime Minister' in place of Salam Fayyad. Jonathan Tobin argues that by doing so, the 'Palestinians' have effectively killed the 'peace process.'

In a ceremony broadcast live across the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was formally buried. The event, which formalized the unity pact between the Fatah Party and its Hamas rival, marked the formation of a new Palestinian Authority government in which both factions would share power. PA President Mahmoud Abbas will also assume the role of prime minister, ousting Salam Fayyad, the pro-peace and development technocrat who had earned the trust of the West for his efforts to build the Palestinian economy and enforce the rule of law. But Fayyad’s role in the PA is now over, as is, apparently, Abbas’s pretense that he, too, favored peace and development.

There will be those apologists for the Palestinians who will say unity was necessary for peace and even claim this means Hamas is abandoning violence. But they will be either lying or deceiving themselves. Hamas’s goal of Israel’s destruction is unchanged as is, it should be noted, that of their erstwhile Fatah enemies. By signing the pact and now making it a reality, Abbas has for all intents and purposes torn up the Oslo Peace Accords, signed with such hope on the White House Lawn in September 1993.

...

The Palestinians are counting on both the Europeans and the Obama administration to bend to their desires and keep Western aid flowing to the PA. They believe the West is so committed to its illusions about Palestinian moderation that they will flout their own laws that forbid the transfer of funds to terror groups and those governments they have infiltrated. They also hope the knee-jerk impulse to blame Israel for everything that happens in the Middle East will overwhelm common sense and create a new push for Israeli concessions to the Fatah-Hamas government.

No doubt there will be plenty of support for such a policy from so-called realists and other veteran peace processers who would compromise their own principles rather than admit they were wrong about the Palestinian desire for peace.

Obama has been the most pro-Palestinian of any American president. But his efforts to help them have been rewarded with the same contempt that more pro-Israel administrations have gotten from the PA. If Obama has a shred of common sense or dignity left, he will make it clear to the Palestinians that they have effectively cut themselves off from American aid and a path to independence. Anything else would constitute a U.S. repudiation of Oslo. If Abbas chooses peace with Hamas over peace with Israel then he must be made to understand he will pay a high price for this decision.

Indeed.

The apologetics have already started here in Israel. Israel Television's news magazine argued on Monday evening that Hamas was not sincere in seeking reconciliation and that it was coerced into doing so by Qatar - where Monday's reconciliation agreement was signed - because with its failure to support Bashar al-Assad, Hamas can no longer stay in Syria.

Israel Radio reports that Abu Mazen updated US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the agreement, and senior 'Palestinian negotiator' Nabil Shaath dismissed Israeli concerns and said that there would be no 'negotiations.'

What could go wrong?

The graphic at the top of this post was done by MR, my multi-talented daughter # 3, child # 5. If you need a graphic artist for part-time work from home (she's still in high school), please feel free to contact me.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Qatar

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:48 AM