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Detente in Doha?

(Jerusalem Post) Zvi Mazel - Recently PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal affixed their signatures to a document naming Abbas head of the future joint transitional Palestinian government. The accord was to cement the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. The problem is that the agreement is incompatible with the nature and objectives of the two movements. The Fatah movement, established in 1965, holds a comfortable margin of control in all Palestinian institutions and is dominant in the Palestine Liberation Organization, recognized by all Arab states as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Hamas dreams of taking over the Palestinian Authority before implementing its main objective: destroying the State of Israel and establishing an Islamic regime on its ruins. Its military takeover of Gaza in 2007 and the expulsion of Fatah and the PA was a first step. Hamas now hopes to win the next elections to the parliament and to the presidency. Both the Doha document and the previous Cairo accord are silent on two key issues: relations with Israel, and the return of Gaza and the placement of its Hamas security forces under the authority of the central government in Ramallah. The writer is a former ambassador to Egypt and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2012-02-17 00:00:00
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