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Friday March 23, 2007

Recognize new unity government — or not?

by ron kampeas
jta

washington | With the Palestinian Authority claiming it has reformed, the dilemma becomes how to deal with it: Shun it? Embrace it? Check it out further?

Those are the choices many nations are considering now that the terrorist group Hamas has joined a coalition government with its formerly deadly rival, the more moderate Fatah.

After Hamas was elected to power a year ago, the diplomatic Quartet guiding the Mideast peace process cut off direct aid and set three conditions for the government to meet before aid could resume: Recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements.

How far will the new P.A. government go toward meeting those principles?

On Saturday, March 17, when the Palestinian legislature approved the new government in a show of hands, P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas, from Fatah, said the new government would reject “all forms of violence.”

Yet P.A. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas told the same parliament that day that “resistance in all its forms” is legitimate.

If that wasn’t contradiction enough, the Mecca Agreement that formed the basis for the unity government, reached last month under Saudi guidance, said the government “respects” but would not necessarily “honor” past agreements with Israel.

The ambiguity presents a diplomatic Rorschach test for others on whether to fund the Palestinian Authority and deal with the new government’s non-Hamas ministers.

Norway immediately recognized the new government, and the prime minister of France urged his government to follow suit.

For Israel, nothing has changed. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said it would continue to boycott the P.A. government and deal only with Abbas, as in the past.

That’s because, the statement said, the new government’s platform identifies terror as a legitimate option and accepts previous agreements with Israel “based only in accordance with Palestinian interests.”

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she wanted further clarifications before the United States would consider ending its isolation of the P.A. government.

“I’m not going to try to interpret what the right of resistance means, but I’ll tell you it doesn’t sound very good to me when one talks about all forms of resistance,” she said this week after meeting with top E.U. foreign policy officials. “So I would put the question to the Palestinian government and to its prime minister: Do you mean the right of resistance by violence? And let’s get an answer.”

In practice, however, there was a slight difference between Israeli and U.S. policy: U.S. officials would meet with non-Hamas ministers. On Tuesday, March 20, Jacob Walles, the U.S. consul in Jerusalem, met with Salam Fayyad, the P.A.’s new finance minister, who has a reputation in Washington for honesty stemming from an earlier stint as finance minister.

Palestinians said the meeting suggested a subtle and, from their view, positive change.

Samar Assad, who directs the Palestine Center think tank in Washington, said the United States should recognize that “only a unity government can deliver on a deal. Having said that, any step forward is positive.”

Congress was keeping a watchful eye on how the administration dealt with the new government. A letter gathering signatures in the Senate urged Rice not to deal with the new coalition.

At first the letter appeared to encourage a ban on dealings with Abbas as well, but Jewish community leaders were concerned that the senators circulating the letter, John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), were overreaching, since the community backs continued engagement with Abbas.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs hosted a conference call on the matter. Due to pressure from Jewish and other groups, the letter was redrafted to make it clear that Abbas was still kosher.

Israel’s backers in Congress said they were skeptical of the new government’s platform.

Yet France, looking at the same national unity document, saw progress.

Speaking at Harvard University March 15, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called for the immediate resumption of aid to the Palestinians.

Norway recognized the new government and immediately sent Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen to meet with its officials. Israeli officials then refused to meet with Johansen.

Other European leaders were more circumspect. Meeting Monday, March 19, with Rice, top E.U. foreign officials said they preferred to maintain the status quo for now: funneling emergency aid to the Palestinians through a mechanism that bypasses the P.A. government.

“We have entered a state where we are very carefully watching the declarations, the statements made by the new government, also the first decisions and actions to be taken by that new government,” said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeyer of Germany, which holds the rotating E.U. presidency.

A letter gathering signatures in the U.S. House of Representatives urged the European Union to maintain a hard line on the Palestinians.

Jewish groups backed that line. A statement from the American Jewish Committee commended the Quartet and expressed its disappointment with Norway. The JCPA called for a continued aid freeze.

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