As Fatah seeks to extend the presidency of Abbas by diktat, it is Abbas that is resisting by all means national reconciliation dialogue with Hamas, writes Saleh Al-Naami During their recent meeting in Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad failed to convince Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to agree to them meeting together with Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas's Damascus-based politburo. An informed source told Al-Ahram Weekly that Abbas justified his resolute refusal to meet Meshaal on account that Meshaal had sent a letter to Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa blaming Abbas's call for dialogue for opening an Israeli military campaign against the Gaza Strip. Abbas told Al-Assad that he considered the letter a blatant accusation of conspiring with Israel in planning attacks on Gaza. Ahmed Youssef, top advisor to dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, holds that Abbas's reasons for refusing to meet Meshaal are untenable, adding that his reference to Meshaal's "supposed" letter to Moussa is meant to "cover the presence of a US-Israeli veto over dialogue, for Abbas has no intention of angering Tel Aviv and Washington." "Things became clear after Moussa and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke recently and Moussa asked the American administration to withdraw its veto over domestic Palestinian dialogue that is preventing its resumption," he told the Weekly. "If we assume that Meshaal did send such a letter, would that justify Abbas refusing to meet with him even while Abbas embraces Olmert despite him approving the daily killing of Palestinians and his government continuing to confiscate land and expand settlements?" he added. Youssef points out that even without this "alleged" letter, Abbas's positions are not a fit groundwork to build dialogue upon. Youssef cannot, for example, accept Abbas's stipulation that any dialogue must apply the conditions of the Yemeni initiative that Hamas holds reservations over. Yet despite these grumblings, it is clear that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Fatah have begun to prepare for entering into dialogue with Hamas. PLO Secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Weekly that he was currently exerting efforts to convince leftist organisations affiliated with the PLO to form a single front with Fatah to counter Hamas in any future national dialogue. Abed Rabbo considers the gathering of PLO factions into a single front a clear political message confirming Hamas's political isolation within Palestinian society. Abed Rabbo stresses that both the PLO and Fatah have tied their agreement to a national dialogue with Hamas to reversing its "overthrow" of Gaza. "Hamas's overthrow in the Gaza Strip must end before any dialogue can begin, for the Palestinian leadership won't accept now, or in the future, that the sword of Hamas's military [coup] be held against the neck of the Palestinian people," he said. Abed Rabbo accuses Hamas of trying to "build a kingdom for the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza," adding that, "this is rejected by the PLO." Yehia Moussa, deputy leader of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, firmly rejects the PLO taking part in any national dialogue that seeks to end the Palestinian rift. "The PLO is a dead entity and its reconstruction on new foundations is a primary point of dialogue, and thus we cannot accept it in a dialogue," he told the Weekly. Moussa says that the two poles in the Palestinian arena are Fatah and Hamas, "and we won't accept for Fatah to hide behind the slogans of other movements." As for Abed Rabbo's affirmation that there will be no efforts to hold a dialogue between Fatah and Hamas before the latter rescinds its "overthrow", Moussa told the Weekly that, "Abed Rabbo carries no weight in the Palestinian democratic scene, for he exists in his imaginary position only by drawing on the [supposed] strength of the American administration, which is dead and decaying. He makes such statements in hope of hearing their echoes by his lords in Washington." Meanwhile, it appears that the Palestinian leftist organisations are not enthusiastic about forming a unified front with Fatah to counter Hamas. Saleh Zidan, member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's politburo, said in response to Abed Rabbo's suggestions that, "Some are trying to burden the dialogue with a number of conditions that affect the possibilities of it commencing and succeeding." Zidan told the Weekly that, "at first glance, all the factors needed to secure the dialogue's success exist, for there are documents agreed upon by Fatah and Hamas, such as the national dialogue initiative and the Cairo declaration. These documents are fit as foundations for commencing dialogue, but from the practical perspective, the chances of the dialogue succeeding are slim due to the lack of a sincere intention to dialogue." Zidan accuses Hamas of orchestrating delays in order to improve its position in a dialogue, whereas he says that Abbas and the Fatah leadership are under US and Israeli pressure to begin dialogue. Zidan says that the efforts taken to push the national dialogue forward won't guarantee its success unless Abbas is convinced of the futility of negotiations with Israel that have served as a cover for expanding settlement construction. Another condition he cites is that the Hamas leadership needs to be convinced that security agreements found in the truce with Israel, and which do not include the West Bank and do not stipulate lifting the siege, are not an achievement for the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, although Syrian officials are disappointed that Abbas refused to meet Meshaal in Damascus, they have shown significant interest in pushing Fatah and Hamas towards commencing a national dialogue. An informed Palestinian source told the Weekly that Syrian officials had recently offered to both Hamas and Fatah visions and mechanisms for resuming a dialogue with one another. This source also said that the Syrians had informed representatives of the Palestinian factions that they would coordinate with Egyptian representatives on how to resume the domestic Palestinian dialogue. The source further said that the problem lay in Abbas's refusal to participate, and that the Egyptian government would send invitations to representatives of the Palestinian factions to attend national dialogue sessions in Cairo immediately upon receiving a green light from Abbas. Fatah sources have begun to leak information on an Egyptian proposal to form a Palestinian technocratic government to replace the Haniyeh and Salam Fayyad governments, and for Arab forces to deploy in the Gaza Strip while a comprehensive national dialogue is taking place. Hamas firmly rejects this proposal. "We would certainly welcome Arab forces to liberate the West Bank from occupation, but not to strip resistance movements in the West Bank of their arms," Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum told the Weekly. "We don't want any Arab army to take on the role of protecting Israel's security and striking at the resistance." Barhoum underlined that Hamas cannot, under any conditions, let go of its control over security in the Gaza Strip in return for the formation of a technocratic government, and asks, "is it reasonable for us to provide conditions for the return of the corrupt security agencies that cooperate with Israel?" The general sense in the Palestinian territories is that Palestinian domestic relations will grow warmer as Palestinian presidential elections edge nearer. Hamas has announced that it will consider Abbas a president who has "lost his legitimacy" if he remains in his position after that date, whereas the Palestinian Authority is currently trying to create the conditions that would allow for his term to be extended and presidential elections to be held concurrently, with legislative elections scheduled for January 2010. Sources in Fatah told the Weekly that despite Abbas's fluctuating positions, he would be forced to reach an agreement with Hamas before the due Palestinian presidential elections since he won't be able to live with the undesirable tag of a "president who has lost legitimacy". These sources add that Abbas is under intense pressure from leaders in Fatah's "second line", who are demanding that he reach agreement with Hamas and end the Palestinian domestic rift.
