Palestinian analysts agreed that having two separate Palestinian
territories, one controlled by Fatah movement led by President
Mahmoud Abbas and the other by Hamas, is weakening the Palestinian
negotiators' weight in getting what they are seeking for in their
talks with the Israelis.
The U.S. decision to bring Israel and the Palestinian National
Authority (PNA) in a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland was
not a coincident, they said.
"It came after Hamas took control of Gaza, and therefore, there
is an Israel-American goal they want to achieve out of the split
between Gaza and the West Bank," Mekheimer Abu Se'da, a Palestinian
analyst and a university academic from Gaza, said on Tuesday.
Local analysts held that the Hamas takeover of Gaza has helped
Israel to completely isolate the poor and densely populated enclave
from the rest of the Palestinian territories, mainly the West Bank,
which is seven times bigger than Gaza.
Israel has found the Hamas' takeover an opportunity to
geographically and politically isolate the trouble-making Gaza from
the West Bank, they said.
Two days ago, Israeli Minister of Interior Security Avi Dechter,
who suddenly visited Israeli settlements close to Gaza borders and
were subjected to Gaza militants' rockets, stated that the Gaza
Strip would be excluded from Annapolis meeting.
"Annapolis meeting will be only for the West Bank, and Gaza
Strip had lost the opportunity. The government would do all its
best to prevent rockets' attacks from Gaza and would, sooner or
later, deter Hamas," Dechter told Israel Radio.
While trying to dump the burden of Gaza after withdrawing from
it in September 2005, Israel, on the other, used Gaza to press on
the wounded arm of President Abbas and the Palestinian negotiators
during the talks on reaching a joint political document before both
sides head to Annapolis meeting.
The Jewish state, in the meanwhile, rejects to hold any kind of
contacts or ties with Hamas movement, which refused to recognize
Israel and condemn violence. The United States and Europe still
consider the movement a terrorist organization.
The recent statements of prominent Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar
made in Gaza that Hamas would take control of the West Bank as soon
as Israel ends its occupation there, gave Israel an excellent
excuse to make it hard for the Palestinian negotiators before
reaching any final agreement.
"Al-Zahar was telling Israel don't withdraw from the West Bank.
I doubt that al-Zahar or Hamas movement would be able one day to
take control of the West Bank, because Israel would never let it do
so," said Ahmed Abdel Rahma, an aid to President Abbas.
Mekheimer Abu Se'da, a Palestinian analyst and a university
academic from Gaza said "it becomes obvious that holding Annapolis
peace summit amid the current division between Gaza and the West
Bank would weaken the ability of the negotiators to get what they
want."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei, better known as Abu
Alla, doubted that the Palestinians and the Israelis could agree on
the joint political document due to arguments on the major final
status issues.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat had described the talks with
the Israeli side as "very difficult," adding "there are still
differences over the substance and not the wording."
Abu Se'da accused Israel for not showing any seriousness or
importance during the three-week talks that precede Annapolis and
contributed it to the weakened Palestinian stance resulted from the
split between Gaza and the West Bank.
"The unserious Israeli position is a result of splitting the
Palestinian territories into Gaza, controlled by Hamas, and the
West Bank, controlled by Abbas. It is also a result of Abbas
disability to reunion the two territories and unifying his internal
front," said Abu Se'da.
The Palestinians want the conference to address concrete issues
such as the borders of a future Palestinian state, Jerusalem and
the fate of Palestinian refugees. Israel, on the other hand, has
said the summit should be a forum to formally renew talks, and
thekey discussions on core issues should only come after the
meeting.
While Palestinians want a joint statement with the Israel which
addresses the core issues before the conference, Israel has been
playing down the importance of such a document, saying the key
point of the Annapolis conference is a deal to relaunch formal
talks on establishing a Palestinian state.
As a result, Abu Se'da expected that the Annapolis meeting
wouldn't achieve any scores for the Palestinians, mainly
establishing an independent Palestinian state on the territories
occupied in 1967.
"In my opinion, Annapolis will just be a conference of unclear
and obscure speeches," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2007)
