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)