Today's News
- Gilad To Meet Suleiman About Cease-Fire
Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad will head to Egypt in the coming days for talks with Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman to convey Israeli reservations concerning the cease-fire deal Cairo has brokered with Hamas on the Gaza Strip, defense officials said Thursday.
One reservation concerns a report in The Jerusalem Post on Thursday in which an official close to the negotiations said that a clause in the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which has already been accepted by Hamas, is the reopening of the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt according to the 2005 agreement reached by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
- Posted on: 05/02/08
- Mideast Quartet Presses Arab States, Israel
Key world powers called Friday on Arab states to fulfill their promises of aid for the Palestinians and voiced deep concern over the humanitarian impact of a nine-month-old Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
In a joint statement issued after the Middle East Quartet held talks in London, the powers also called on Israel to stop building or extending settlements in the West Bank.
- Posted on: 05/02/08
- Edging Toward ‘Silent Acceptance’ of A Truce
When it comes to Egypt’s proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, the Israeli defense establishment is united on at least one assessment—Hamas has everything to gain from six months of quiet in the Strip.
The differences begin to surface when officials start pondering the pros and cons for Israel of the proffered truce. Ultimately, the decision on whether to accept Cairo’s proposal will be up to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
- Posted on: 05/02/08
- Islamic Jihad Says Won’t Formally Agree to Truce
Islamic Jihad said on Thursday it would not formally sign on to an Egyptian-brokered truce with Israel but would not be the first to violate it.
Citing an unnamed high-level Egyptian official, Egypt’s state news agency MENA said on Wednesday that Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo had agreed to an Egyptian proposal for a truce with Israel starting in the Hamas- controlled Gaza Strip.
- Posted on: 05/02/08
Setting the Record Straight
A Lot to Lose
“So what’s to lose [from a broken cease-fire agreement with Hamas]? Yes, we would lose the peace negotiations with Abbas. We would lose the chance of reaching an agreement with a moderate Palestinian leadership, because Abbas and Fatah would be finished. But I don’t think I need to persuade anyone that those negotiations have utterly no potential or value except to placate the Bush administration.”
–Larry Derfner, “For a Cease-Fire With Hamas,” The Jerusalem Post, April 30, 2008
VS.
“[W]hat we are facing today is not just the challenge of peace, but we are facing a test of our credibility as a whole: the United States, members of the Quartet, and all members of the international community, Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, the Arab and Islamic group, as well.
It is a test that would leave its indelible impact on the future of the region and on the relationship among its peoples and the international powers that are entrusted in the peace [and] stability of our region …
We do recognize, and I presume that you share [with] me this view, that the absence of hope and overwhelming despair would feed extremism. Therefore, we have a common duty to spread genuine hope in order to achieve full transformation toward complete peace …”
–President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, Annapolis, November 27, 2007
Today's Feature
The Perils of Unconditional Engagement
by Ghaith al-Omari, director of advocacy, American Task Force on Palestine; former member, Palestinian negotiating team (permanent status negotiations through 2000) & foreign policy adviser to Palestinian President Abbas. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
The issue of whether or not to engage Hamas boils down to the following question: would such engagement help moderate the organization, or would it simply improve Hamas’ chances of dominating the Palestinian political scene and encourage extremism throughout the Middle East? For now, any engagement that goes beyond achieving de-escalation in Gaza would serve to bolster Hamas at the expense of those working toward a two-state solution.
Those who argue that engagement would bring about a significant change in
Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar & Said Siam (AP)
"Engaging Hamas without the terms of engagement being clear and without it first paying the political price of admission to the international club— particularly by accepting the two- state solution and disarming—amounts to a political free lunch."
Middle East Analysis
- Mr. Zahar and Mr. Carter
Hamas is not at all interested in a negotiated peace with the Jewish state, whose existence it refuses to accept: “Our fight to redress the material crimes of 1948 is scarcely begun,” [Mahmoud al-Zahar] concludes. In that fight, no act of terrorism is out of bounds for the Hamas leader, who endorses the group’s recent ambush of Israeli civilians working at a fuel depot that supplies Gaza. The “total war” of which he speaks was initiated and has been sustained
- Posted on: 05/02/08
Background Basics
- History of Hamas and Current Leadership
Timeline
1987: Founding of Hamas: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abdel Aziz Rantisi and others create the organization as an offshoot of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood at the beginning of the first intifada, or uprising. Hamas has a strong base of support in the Gaza Strip, and has some presence in the West Bank as well.1988: Publishing of the Hamas Covenant: Among other things, the covenant calls for the obliteration of
- Posted on: 05/02/08
Heard on the Street
- Moderates Need Support
Dr. Ziad Asali, president & founder, American Task Force on Palestine, interview on Rosner’s Guest, Haaretz, April 28, 2008:
“Eventually, however, no matter how Hamas is handled, the fact remains that without progress both on the ground, and—more importantly in the long term—on permanent status negotiations, Palestinian moderates will continue to be deeply undermined. If a peace agreement is reached, and if its credibility is rooted not in words but in implementation by concrete measures on the ground, then
- Posted on: 05/02/08
Upcoming Events
- No End in Sight: Conversations on Iraq
Keynote Address:
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)Introduction by:
Rudy deLeon, Senior Vice President of National Security and International Policy, Center for American ProgressFeatured Speaker:
Charles Ferguson, author, No End in SightModerated by:
Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow, Center for American ProgressWhen: March 13, 2008, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Where: Center for American Progress, 1333 H St, NW, Washington, DC. 20005
RSVP for event or click here for more information
- Posted on: 03/10/08
- Middle East Progress
- 1333 H St. NW, Floor 10
- Washington, DC 20005
- info@middleeastprogress.org
