CAIRO: Egypt's political powers hailed the unity agreement between Palestinian Fatah and Hamas signed on Wednesday, adding that Egypt's January 25 Revolution made the reconciliation possible. Karima El-Hifnawy, senior member of the Kefaya Movement and the National Association for Change (NAC), said that Egypt's revolution and other Arab uprisings resonated with the Palestinian people who went out to the streets and chanted, “The people want to end the [Palestinian] division.” “The Palestinian factions were forced to realize that their divisions helped no one but Israel,” El-Hifnawy told Daily News Egypt. Thirteen Palestinian factions signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo a day earlier to end the divide between the West Bank and Gaza and hold elections in a year in an agreement Israel called a blow to peace. The pact signed on Wednesday, long in the making, provides for the creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government ahead of national elections next year but leaves key issues unresolved, such as who will control the Palestinian security forces, and makes no mention of relations with Israel. Representatives of 13 factions, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party and its rival Hamas, as well as independent political figures, inked the deal following talks with Egyptian officials. The agreement was immediately denounced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "a hard blow to the peace process." El-Hifnawy said that opposition powers have called for a million man march in Tahrir Square on Friday against the Israeli statements condemning the reconciliation and in support of the Palestinian factions. The reconciliation deal marks a diplomatic coup for Egypt's new government, 11 weeks after president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular revolt. Cairo had tried for more than a year to mediate between Fatah and Hamas but its efforts fell flat. Political powers accused the former regime of stalling the Palestinian reconciliation to serve its personal interests instead of the Palestinians'. “The former regime had arrangements and mutual interests with Israel that prevented it from achieving a true Palestinian reconciliation,” prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood and former MP, Mohamed El-Beltagi, told Daily News Egypt. General coordinator of April 6 Youth Movement Ahmed Maher agreed, saying, “The former regime was biased against Hamas due to the strong links and similarities between Hamas and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood which the regime fiercely fought.” Al-Ghad Party's Secretary General Wael Nawara told DNE, “Egypt's former regime played a weak role in the Palestinian reconciliation and the Arab world and led to the deterioration of Egypt's leading position within the Arab world.” Opposition forces were optimistic that the Palestinian reconciliation would help Egypt regain its leading role in the Arab world and help unite the Arab countries which have long been divided by disputes and personal interests. “Egypt will regain its leading role in the region and have balanced Arab and international relations based on transparency and serving the people's best interests,” El-Beltagi said. “Egypt's revolution brought Egypt back to the arms of the Arab world where it belongs,” El-Hifnawy told DNE. “This agreement will give the Palestinians and the Arabs more strength and leverage in negotiating a peace agreement with Israel,” El-Hifnawy added. “Now Egypt can easily send humanitarian aid to both Hamas and Fatah and deal with them as equals and cooperate with them in protecting the Rafah border,” Maher said. Mohamed Farag, secretary general of Al-Tagammu Party, told DNE that the Palestinian internal conflict divided the Arab countries into two groups; one cheering for Hamas and another cheering for Fatah. Nabil Abdel Fatah, political analyst from Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, agreed, saying that Egypt's former regime, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordon supported Fatah, while Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon supported Hamas. “This increased the rift between Arab countries,” Abdel Fatah told DNE. He said that the Palestinian factions were forced to stage a reconciliation agreement at the current time, in order to ease the rage of the Palestinian people and in order to keep up with the uprisings around the Middle East. “Now that there are revolutions all around the Arab world, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has taken a back seat as the Arab countries attempt to resolve their internal issues,” he added. The Palestinian factions needed to take a serious step in order to get back on top of the Arab world's agenda and work on resolving the Israeli Palestinian conflict, he added. “We fear that this agreement is merely a show that doesn't include any true guarantees for true unity, competition and political freedom among Palestinian factions,” he said.
