Hamas Flashes True Colors Joining PLO

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright May 5, 2014
All Rights Reserved.                                     

              Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted skeptically when 78-year-old Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced April 23 a unity deal with Hamas.  Netanyahu signaled the latest round of U.S.-brokered Mideast peace talks started July 30, 2013 were over.  Divided between the Gaza Strip and West Bank,  Palestinians have been split since June 14, 2007 when Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas and the PLO in a bloodless coup.  White House peace efforts, led by 70-year-old Secretary of State John Kerry, were aimed only at Abbas’ Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, roughly half the Palestinian population.  Announcing a unity deal April 23, State Department officials assumed that Hamas was finally joining the peace process.  Recent public statements say otherwise, suggesting that the unity pact signaled a new Intifada or uprising.

             When Mideast peace talks under former President Bill Clinton broke off in Summer of 2000 with the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, it triggered a nearly two-year uprising causing hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian deaths.  Abbas’ April 23 announcement seeking unity with Hamas hints at another uprising with peace talks stalled around the same old issues of an independent Palestinian state, including borders, a future capital, refugees’ right of return, etc.  Throwing cold water on current Mideast talks, Hamas announced its position on Israel.  “We will no recognize the Zionist-entity,” said Hamas spokeman Mussa Abu Ma Marzuq, stating emphatically Hamas would never recognize Israel.  Knowing Hamas’ position, Abbas’ approval of any unity agreement signals that he’s adopted Hamas’ position.  Since resuming peace talks in 2013, White House officials assumed Abbas was different.

             Meeting in Doha, Qatar today, Abbas and Hamas-leader-in-exile Khalid Meshaal agreed to work on details of the April 23 unity agreement, including such things as future elections and who would lead the combined entity.  Meshaal has lived in Doha for the past two years after a falling out with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who hosted him in Damascus for  nearly 20 years.  It’s unclear what, if any, role Meshaal would play in a combined Hamas and PLO entity, since Gaza’s 56-year-old leader Ismail Haniyeh has no plans to ceding power.  Hamas spokesman Marquq stated that Hamas would not abide by any past PLO agreement with Israel, nor any deal-making from the so-called “Quartet” including U.S., European Union, Russia and U.N..  Joining Hamas, Abbas seeks the same military leverage against Israel formerly used by Arafat to exact concessions from the Israeli government.

             U.S. officials hoped that the latest round of peace talks would yield a final status agreement leading to an independent Palestinian state.  Arafat went to his grave Nov. 11, 2004 never realizing his dream of an independent state because he spent most his adult life fighting to destroy Israel.  Netanyahu knows Hamas’ charter calls for Israel’s destruction and return to the Palestine held by the British before Israel declared statehood in 1948.  U.S. officials hoped Abbas had enough sense to know that there’s no return to pre-1948 Palestine, nor is Israel willing to return to the pre-1967 War borders.  Abbas has insisted on a return to the pre-1967 borders when Gaza was part of Egypt and the West Bank a sovereign part of Jordan.  Netanyahu has rejected any return to the pre-1967 borders because of Israel’s security.  Publicly affirming Hamas’ position about Israel presents funding problems for Abbas going forward.

             Whatever sympathies the current U.S. administration has for the plight of Palestinians, it can’t back a state that calls for Israel’s destruction.  Insisting Hamas would never accept the Quartet’s conditions, Marzuq made it clear that the Palestinian unity agreement signals a new stage in Palestinian-Israeli relations.  “Hamas rejects the Quartet’s conditions because it denies some of our peoples rights,” Marzuq told reporters in Doha.  What Marzuq refers to is the “right-of-return” to Israel proper of Palestinians that lost property during the 1948 War that established the state of Israel.  If Abbas expects to get any foreign aid for the U.S., he’ll be forced to get Hamas to accept the Quartet’s conditions or sever contact with the State Department figured terror organization.  White House officials hoped that Palestinian unity would require Hamas to accept Israel and renounce violence.

             U.S. and Israel officials now view the April 23 unity agreement between the Ramallah-based PLO and Gaza-based Hamas as a possible prelude to more armed conflict.  Since founded by quadraplegic blind Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1987, Hamas has played the role of the PLO’s armed resistance.  Jointing forces again shows the sheer desperation of Hamas’ current Gaza-based leaders and utter frustration of the PLO’s Ramallah-based group to get any workable peace deal with Israel.  Without Hamas publicly accepting Israel’s right to exist, Abbas puts the entire peace process on hold indefinitely.  Joining a State Department-branded terror organization, Abbas put U.S. foreign aid in jeopardy.  If Abbas joins Hamas, it could signal a change of leadership where the PLO no longer represents Palestinians or plays any meaningful role in a future Mideast peace.