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[webfact]

Palestinian prime minister visits Gaza in move to reconcile with Hamas

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

 

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah waves upon his arrival with his government ministers to take control of Gaza from the Islamist Hamas group, in the northern Gaza Strip October 2, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

 

GAZA (Reuters) - The West Bank-based Palestinian prime minister crossed into the Gaza Strip on Monday in a move towards reconciliation between the mainstream Fatah party and Hamas, a decade after the Islamist group seized the territory in a civil war.

 

Rami al-Hamdallah said at a welcome ceremony his unity government would begin assuming control of Gaza's administrative affairs, as well as "security responsibilities and responsibility for crossings and borders".

 

Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel and the West, made its dramatic step towards unity last month, disbanding its Gaza shadow government, after Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates imposed an economic boycott on its main donor, Qatar, over alleged support of terrorism. Qatar denies the allegation.

 

Under previous understandings, some 3,000 Fatah security men would be integrated gradually into a Gaza police force overseen by an Interior Ministry headed by Hamdallah.

 

That deployment would still leave Hamas's armed wing -- analysts say it has at least 25,000 well-equipped fighters -- the dominant power in the Palestinian enclave of 2 million people.

 

"We return to Gaza in order to conclude reconciliation and national unity and end the painful impacts of divisions and to rebuild Gaza brick by brick," said Hamdallah, who is an independent.

 

Forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lost control of Gaza in fighting with Hamas in 2007.

 

Hamas's reversal is the most significant step towards Palestinian reconciliation since the unity government was formed in 2014. It failed to function in Gaza - where Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008 - because of disputes between Hamas and Fatah over its responsibilities.

 

In his first comments after Hamdallah and his entourage entered Gaza, Abbas told Egyptian TV station CBC in an interview that his sanctions on the enclave would be lifted after the unity government takes control.

 

"Everything must be in the hands of the Palestinian Authority, it must be the one to control the crossing points (in and out of Gaza),” he said, adding that there could be only one regime setting laws and enforcing them.

 

Analysts said narrowing internal divisions could help Western-backed Abbas counter Israel's argument that it has no negotiating partner for peace with the Palestinians.

 

A Hamas police honour guard and hundreds of Palestinians, many of them waving Palestinian flags, awaited Hamdallah outside the Hamas-controlled checkpoint, down the road from Israel's Erez border crossing through which the prime minister and his motorcade passed.

 

"It is a day of Eid, a national holiday," said Abdel-Majid Ali, 46. "We hope this time reconciliation is for real."

 

Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, wrote on Twitter: "The road ahead will be long and hard, but momentum of reconciliation and peace should not be missed."

 

CABINET MEETING

 

The unity drive also marked a return to prominence of exiled former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan, once one of Hamas's fiercest enemies and now a leading figure in regional efforts to pull the territory back into the Palestinian mainstream.

 

Dahlan, based since 2011 in the United Arab Emirates, is behind an influx of cash to prop up Gaza and detente between Hamas and Arab states including Egypt, which hosted reconciliation talks.

 

Michael Oren, deputy minister for diplomacy in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, said a key issue for Israel was whether Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction, would retain its weapons.

 

"If it does, then it's a non-starter for Israel," he said.

 

The U.S. was watching developments closely with the aim of improving humanitarian conditions in Gaza, Jason Greenblatt, U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, said on Twitter, but insisted the new administration must abandon violence.

 

"The United States stresses that any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties, and peaceful negotiations," Greenblatt wrote.

 

Both Israel and Egypt maintain a partial blockade of Gaza, citing security concerns.

 

In public remarks at a lunch with Hamdallah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh appeared to be uncompromising about any accommodation with Israel, calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state "on the full Palestinian soil with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees to their lands and homes".

 

On Tuesday, the Palestinian unity cabinet will meet in Gaza.

 

"The agenda is crowded with ideas and projects," Culture Minister Ehad Bseisso said.

 

In addition to setting a date for holding presidential and parliamentary elections, rival factions will have to resolve the issue of the fate of the 40,000 to 50,000 civil and military staff Hamas had hired since 2007.

 

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Ali Abelatti in Cairo; Editing by Alison Williams and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-03

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

"The United States stresses that any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties, and peaceful negotiations,"

Yet, on the other hand:

"The Trump administration is now establishing a non-interventionist foreign policy in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world" https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1005148-prayut’s-trip-to-washington-confirms-us-non-interventionist-foreign-policy/?utm_source=newsletter-20171003-0742&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

 

Trump's foreign policy is more one of "What I want, Where I want and When I want." There's no consistency or moral compass to guide it.

[Morch]

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

Yet, on the other hand:

"The Trump administration is now establishing a non-interventionist foreign policy in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world" https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1005148-prayut’s-trip-to-washington-confirms-us-non-interventionist-foreign-policy/?utm_source=newsletter-20171003-0742&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

 

Trump's foreign policy is more one of "What I want, Where I want and When I want." There's no consistency or moral compass to guide it.

 

With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Trump administration doesn't actually deviate much from traditional USA positions. Pretty much the same statements were issued by previous administrations on past occasions when the Palestinian reconciliation was discussed. The quote is an almost standard diplomatic response.

 

As for the Trump administration's lacking a compass, moral or otherwise - not exactly news. Non-interventionism made a great slogan, but like a whole lot of words coming from Trump - doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. Unless mistaken, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was one of the specific foreign policy issues which Trump directly addressed as an area in which the USA will be involved.

[Morch]

 

With regard to the OP, a bit of been there done that sentiment. Declarations, statements, ceremonies - and then the whole thing going bust again when it comes to details and implementation.

 

Fatah–Hamas reconciliation process

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah–Hamas_reconciliation_process

 

The same core issues remain - control of border passes, control of armed forces and weapon stocks, future elections, and Hamas's position vs. Israel. So far, doesn't seem there's a major change with regard to most of the above.

[Srikcir]

8 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Trump administration doesn't actually deviate much from traditional USA positions. Pretty much the same statements were issued by previous administrations on past occasions when the Palestinian reconciliation was discussed. The quote is an almost standard diplomatic response.

 

As for the Trump administration's lacking a compass, moral or otherwise - not exactly news. Non-interventionism made a great slogan, but like a whole lot of words coming from Trump - doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot. Unless mistaken, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was one of the specific foreign policy issues which Trump directly addressed as an area in which the USA will be involved.

I only point to the inconsistencies in Trump's foreign policy of alleged nonintervention.

• Trump Trashes Two-States…and 30 Years of U.S. Policy on Israel-Palestine https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/08/28/trump-trashes-two-states-past-u-s-israel-palestine-policy/
• Casting the Obama administration as people who looked the other way on the Castro regime's human rights violations, Trump said that he, as President, will "expose the crimes of the Castro regime." http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/16/politics/trump-cuba-policy/index.html
• “We have many options for Venezuela and by the way, I’m not going to rule out a military option,” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/11/donald-trump-venezuela-crisis-military-intervention

No Head of State can rely on nor anticipate Trump's foreign policy from moment to moment. It's beginning to be that even his actions don't mean a whole lot.

[Srikcir]

21 minutes ago, Morch said:

So far, doesn't seem there's a major change

Might be coming this month:

"The leader of Hamas’ political wing in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar .... continues to speak in favor of reconciliation and says his organization has agreed to many compromises in order to promote that goal. He said he would break the neck of anyone within Hamas who tries to hurt their efforts."

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/1.815009

 

[Morch]

2 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

I only point to the inconsistencies in Trump's foreign policy of alleged nonintervention.

• Trump Trashes Two-States…and 30 Years of U.S. Policy on Israel-Palestine https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/08/28/trump-trashes-two-states-past-u-s-israel-palestine-policy/
• Casting the Obama administration as people who looked the other way on the Castro regime's human rights violations, Trump said that he, as President, will "expose the crimes of the Castro regime." http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/16/politics/trump-cuba-policy/index.html
• “We have many options for Venezuela and by the way, I’m not going to rule out a military option,” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/11/donald-trump-venezuela-crisis-military-intervention

No Head of State can rely on nor anticipate Trump's foreign policy from moment to moment. It's beginning to be that even his actions don't mean a whole lot.

 

Agreed that, generally speaking, Trump handling of foreign policy issues is erratic at best. But I also think that this is more an issue that relates to Trump himself, and his previous inner circle of advisors.

 

Most times, Trump would either make a remark, issue a statement or tweet regarding an issue - sometimes without much insight or briefing and other times as part of campaign-trail-like addresses. Whether spouting his own dimwitted views or playing for his base, doesn't matter. Same result - advisors and spokespersons scramble for the fix, and after a while USA traditional foreign policy sorta gets back on track. The damage done remains, of course.

 

It's a good question how foreign leaders take this.

[Morch]

2 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Might be coming this month:

"The leader of Hamas’ political wing in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar .... continues to speak in favor of reconciliation and says his organization has agreed to many compromises in order to promote that goal. He said he would break the neck of anyone within Hamas who tries to hurt their efforts."

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/1.815009

 

 

Selective quoting is fine - but the tone of the article is rather less optimistic, and for good reasons. Like many other issues relating to ME, sides can have different interpretation of what comes under titles such as "reconciliation". As the article specifies, core issues like control of Hamas military wing and weapons stocks are a major hurdle. On a side note, talk of breaking necks of opponents is perhaps not a good sign with regard to how things may pan out.

[Srikcir]

1 minute ago, Morch said:

talk of breaking necks of opponents is perhaps not a good sign with regard to how things may pan out.

Read again - Sinwar is Hamas talking about break the neck of anyone within Hamas. A good sign if only words towards a serious effort at reconciliation.

[Morch]

22 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Read again - Sinwar is Hamas talking about break the neck of anyone within Hamas. A good sign if only words towards a serious effort at reconciliation.

 

I'm well aware of that, thanks. My point was with regard to how decisions are arrived at and enforced - threats of violence unto dissenters do not bode well. Not with regards to terms being genuinely accepted and not with regard to how a political system operates.