Abbas Announces Deal With Hamas (Coalition of Fatah and Hamas)

[Pirate Smile]

Abbas Announces Deal With Hamas
Rival Palestinian Movements Agree to Work Together to Create Unity Government

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 12, 2006; Page A18

JERUSALEM, Sept. 11 -- Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced Monday that the governing Hamas movement and his rival Fatah party have agreed on the principles of a power-sharing government and may soon form a new cabinet to lead the beleaguered Palestinian Authority.

Under the plan, Abbas, the authority's president, is to dissolve the current Hamas-led cabinet within 48 hours. Abbas would then nominate the current Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas officials said, to assemble a coalition cabinet that would include members of his party, Fatah, other factions, and so-called technocrats unaligned with the leading movements.

Details of the agreement mark the first time Hamas has tacitly endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if not explicitly the Jewish state's right to exist. Hamas and Fatah announced a tentative agreement several months ago, but it was never officially signed because of the tumult of an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip following the June 25 capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit by gunmen from Hamas's military wing.

-snip-
The deal follows contentious negotiations over a unified political program that would satisfy the rival Palestinian movements, as well as bring about an end to international sanctions against the Palestinian Authority. International donors froze aid after Hamas defeated the secular Fatah movement in elections eight months ago. Israel has withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that it collects on the Palestinian state's behalf.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091100237.html

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. Let it be so n/t

[geek tragedy]

2. So, who's going to sabotage this?

Hamas, Fatah, Israel, or the United States?

I'll vote "Israel" just because Olmert is on a roll with self-destructive actions.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Islamic Jihad is my vote.

They have been targeting Fatah members and refuse any coalition that recognizes Israel. If this coalition is true, then I think IJ will sabotage this, as will the "splinter" groups.

[geek tragedy]

4. Maybe IJ and Olmert will tag-team.

IJ will commit a terrorist atrocity, and then Olmert, needing to show what a strong leader he is :sarcasm: will overreact with a missile strike or bombing.

That'll splinter things quite effectively.

Sad how cynical one must be when processing news from I/P.

[Igel]

5. "Tacit" = deniable and ignorable.

More of the "they'll accept a separate Palestinian state now, and let's assume that means recognition of Israel's legitimacy." That amounts to a two-state solution; at least, it amounts to an interim two-state solution. And there's the rub.

Hell, when you work out the plan to shoot some guy in the back of the head you're acknowledging he exists; when you follow him, you're acknowledging he exists; when you're standing next to him, you're co-existing with him, sort of a "interim two-body solution". But there's a difference between that and 'tacitly acknowleding his right to exist'. On edit: And there's a huge difference between that and explicitly acknowledging his right to exist.

More papering over significant difference in hopes that they don't matter, playing kick the can for short-term advantage. Must appear righteous and acceptable, even if inside there's rot.