In the aftermath of the Gaza tragedy, two silver linings, one political, the other economic, have appeared on the Palestinian horizon. Leaders of the rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, now appear to be entering a new era of reconciliation after talks in Cairo, while today an international donors conference, also in the Egyptian capital, could come up with close to $3 billion in reconstruction aid badly needed by the Palestinians after Israel nearly totaled Gaza in January’s onslaught.
The news has been welcomed by a people caught in the middle of an internal power struggle. President Mahmoud Abbas badly needs an alliance with Hamas to bolster his political standing. Even before the victory for hard-liners in Israel’s elections, he was finding it difficult to convince the Palestinians that peaceful negotiations will win them a state. Hamas, on the other hand, needs Fatah’s international legitimacy to get foreign aid to rebuild the hollow shell that Israel has made of Gaza, and to remain part of the mainstream politics.
About a dozen Palestinian groups took part in the national dialogue, adding weight to the seriousness of purpose. The idea is to form an interim unity government that would prepare for new presidential and legislative elections and coordinate the rebuilding of Gaza.
Fatah and Hamas have fundamental differences over how to deal with Israel. While Fatah has renounced violence, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, preparing only to accept a short-term truce but reserving the right to continue with its resistance to the occupation. Other issues seem just as daunting, particularly restructuring the security forces. Hamas controls some 20,000 troops in Gaza, while Abbas has thousands of armed men in the West Bank under his control. Under a unity deal, the forces would have to be merged and depoliticized.
Any reservations about what the dialogues might eventually produce must be tempered by the inevitable conclusion reached between Hamas and Fatah that the rise of the extreme right to power in Israel has obliged them to reach an understanding that could put an end, once and for all, to the state of division in Palestinian politics. That Benjamin Netanyahu has been unable to cobble together a government less of a hawk than he is forcing Palestinians to unify quickly to confront the extremist thought of the Israeli political right that does not recognize Palestinian national rights. Those who failed in the recent Israeli elections are the very same people who led the most destructive of wars in Gaza, illustrating graphically that the Israeli electorate was dissatisfied with their performance in Gaza and wants more killing and more destruction. Fatah and Hamas both now realize that reconciliation is a strategy that must be implemented in order to safeguard their political survival. Solving Fatah-Hamas differences is an essential step for, first, the Palestinians themselves, and second, if a peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis is to happen. Donor participants in Cairo will closely watch the unity talks, particularly progress on forming a new government, because the two go hand in hand. The less Palestinian unity there is, the less aid will flow into Palestinian hands.
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