Haaretz
Adar 17, 5767
If Israel
agrees to persuade the international community not to boycott the new
Palestinian unity government, the Palestinians "will offer a promise from
Hamas and Fatah of a total cease-fire with Israel, including a complete
halt to Qassam [rocket] fire and suicide bombings," a senior Hamas
official told Haaretz yesterday.
Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas plans to deliver this offer at his upcoming meeting with
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian sources said. The meeting is
tentatively scheduled for Sunday, thought according to the Palestinians,
the date has not yet been finalized.
However, the Hamas official
warned, if Israel presses for a continuation of the international boycott
and refuses to work with the unity government, the existing partial
cease-fire will be in danger.
Olmert, however, plans to use the
meeting to urge Abbas to ensure that the new government, which is
currently being formed, accepts the Quartet's conditions: recognizing
Israel, renouncing violence and honoring previous Israeli-Palestinian
agreements.
"This will not be a scolding conversation," said a
government source, "but a heart-to-heart talk in which Olmert will try to
exploit the grace period that remains before the new PA government is
established."
Israel is also working to persuade the European
Union - one of the Quartet's four members, along with the United States,
Russia and the United Nations - to continue the boycott should the unity
government not meet these three conditions, laid down by the Quartet last
year.
Olmert has no plans to announce any additional steps to ease
Palestinian life at his meeting with Abbas. This will be their third
meeting over the last three months.
The Palestinians said the
unity government was unlikely to be finalized until after the Olmert-Abbas
meeting. As of yesterday, Hamas and Fatah were still arguing over who the
interior minister should be.
Should the unity government not
accept the Quartet's conditions, Israel also plans to boycott ministers
from Abbas' Fatah Party. In Europe, however, there is growing support for
dialogue with "moderate ministers."
One reason for this is the
change in Abbas' position. When Hamas comprised the entire government, he
supported the boycott. But now that a unity government is being formed, he
wants the Europeans to work with Fatah government members, arguing that
this will strengthen Fatah's position in its ongoing debate with Hamas
over diplomatic policy.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who returned
yesterday from a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said that thus far,
the EU appears to be standing firm on the Quartet conditions, as evidenced
by its rejection of an Italian-Spanish-French proposal to set up a special
committee to reconsider the conditions for dialogue with the new unity
government. However, fearing this position might erode, she devoted much
of her visit to urging her counterparts to stand firm on this issue,
arguing that insisting on the Quartet conditions would strengthen
Palestinian moderates, whereas "compromising at this time would strengthen
Hamas."
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, one of the
leaders of the anti-boycott camp, opined recently that the EU should not
insist that the new government recognize Israel. Instead, it should say
that abiding by the other two conditions would be sufficient, in order to
encourage Hamas to be more flexible rather than trying to pressure it, he
argued.
The EU's external relations commissioner, Benita
Ferrero-Waldner, harshly criticized Israel at a meeting with opposition
leader Benjamin Netanyahu last week: "You're not giving the Palestinians
anything - neither territory nor hope," she said. But Israeli government
sources claimed that she took a more moderate tone in meetings with other
Israeli officials and refrained from criticism.
Meanwhile, Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met yesterday with Khaled Meshal, the head
of Hamas' political bureau, and urged the Palestinians to continue the
armed struggle against Israel, "which is undergoing the worst period of
its existence, and getting worse." Iran also pledged financial aid to the
new PA government.