SHARM EL-SHEIKH: In the Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, the Egyptian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli leaders convened Monday in a show of solidarity with President Mahmoud Abbas as the sole legitimate Palestinian leader.
The summit also launched a new phase of Israeli-Palestinian talks following the Hamas takeover of Gaza. The Sharm El-Sheikh talks come in the wake of a newly-formed Hamas-free cabinet based in the West Bank in a bid by the main regional players to isolate the Islamist organization, Israel s prime foe.
Yet observers believe that no breakthrough to resolve the 59-year-old conflict seems to be on the horizon. Perhaps, there will be some kind of decision to provide financial support for Abbas and ease the mobility of Palestinians in the West Bank, said Gamal Abdel Gawad, an expert at Al Ahram Center of Political and Strategic Studies. But, I don’t think serious decisions will be made towards a full-fledged peace process. The situation now is more complex than before, which cannot allow for the launching of a peace process in the near future. We have two competing Palestinian governments and a territorial divide, added Abdel Gawad. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert himself cautioned against high expectations at a cabinet meeting Sunday.
Don t wait impatiently tonight for the outcome as if at the end of the day you are going to see us sitting and signing a peace treaty. It will take time, he told the Associated Press in Jerusalem before he left for Egypt.
Israeli officials reportedly said that Israel would not heed demands to remove checkpoints, roadblocks and settlements in the West Bank – now an Abbas stronghold – until the latter proves more effective at quashing militants.
Thus, there is little hope that the new round of talks could iron out the main thorny issues, including the fate of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees right of return and Israeli settlements. Some skeptics expect Israel to capitalize on the Palestinian Israeli division to reduce the conflict to humanitarian issues. In a goodwill gesture, the Israeli cabinet agreed Sunday to transfer withheld Palestinian tax revenues to Abbas s emergency government. According to Palestinian officials, an estimate of $700 million has been confiscated by the Israeli government since Hamas made a landslide victory during the 2006 legislative elections. It is not just a matter of releasing withheld money. This is a positive step but it is not enough, said Mohamed Bassiouni, Egypt s former ambassador to Israel and head of the Shoura Council s Foreign Relations Committee. Olmert should not just speak of humanitarian issues such as food and money.
The future of a Palestinian state must be discussed, said Bassiouni, to give hope to the Palestinian people. Hamas leader Ismail Haniya shrugged off the Israeli decision to lift the freeze on Palestinian revenues as blackmail. This money should not be used for blackmail but should be paid to all Palestinians, Haniya reportedly said. He also played down the Egypt-sponsored summit arguing that it would not bring any prospects of genuine peace. The Arab leaders are expected to discuss their future policies vis-à-vis Gaza-controlled Hamas, said Abdel Gawad. Would it be complete closure, partial closure? Definitely this will be discussed but it is very unlikely to reach a consensus, he added. He warned against a full isolation of the Gaza Strip that could jeopardize the lives of Gazans or provoke Hamas to react violently against its neighbors. Abbas sacked the Hamas cabinet earlier this month after a bloody fight in which Hamas fighters seized the security headquarters, forcing their Fatah rivals out of Gaza. Like Jordan, Egypt has thrown its full support behind Abbas to isolate Hamas – a move aimed at thwarting the Islamist model established at its doorstep. The first sign of Egypt s staunch support for Fatah was the transfer of the Egyptian diplomatic mission to the Occupied Territories from Gaza to the West Bank. Also, President Hosni Mubarak described Hamas takeover of Gaza as a coup that undermined political legitimacy. Observers maintain that Egypt s position is also driven by fears of the Iranian influence that has swept the region through Islamist groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas. Those groups are believed to receive moral and financial support from the Islamic Republic.
