Hamas Again Accepts a Palestinian State on The 1967 Lines

The Wall Street Journal today reports that Hamas Chief Khaled Meshaal told Jay Solomon and Julien Barnes-Dacey in an interview that "We along with other Palestinian factions in consensus agreed upon accepting a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines. This is the national program. This is our program. This is a position we stand by and respect." Meshaal also insisted that Hamas would commit to an immediate reciprocal cease-fire with Israel and a prisoner swap.

Anti-Hamas activists will note that he also insisted that he would accept and respect a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders "as part of a broader peace agreement with Israel" if Israel accepted the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and the establishment of a capital for the Palestinian state in East Jerusalem.

But what is fascinating is that Meshaal has in fact, parroted the official negotiating position of the PLO and of Fatah. Even though a number of PLO leaders have privately admitted to Israelis that they might forego the right of return in exchange for the 1967 borders, this has never been the official negotiating position and even President Mahmoud Abbas has publicly stuck to the line that there needs to be a "just and agreed" resolution of the refugee issue. On East Jerusalem, there is no daylight between the Hamas and PLO position.

Most importantly, Meshaal seems to be indicating that Hamas now endorses the US attempt to negotiate an end to the occupation.

In the past, Hamas' position has been that that they would allow President Abbas, as leader of the PLO, to negotiate while they remained the pious opposition, undoubtedly back-biting his attempts to conclude an agreement and presenting the results as a sell-out. It was politics at its most cynical. But in today's WSJ piece, Meshaal is quoted saying "Hamas and other Palestinian groups are ready to cooperate with any American, international or regional effort to find a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, to end the Israeli occupation and to grant the Palestinian people their right of self-determination."

If Meshaal is truly speaking on behalf of all of Hamas (and Hamas is much better at speaking with a unified voice than most Palestinian parties), then he is actually endorsing President Obama's efforts to quickly negotiate an end to the conflict and is offering Hamas "cooperation" in that regard.

A few months ago, I was in Israel and the Occupied Territory. Many of the Israeli officials with whom I met insisted that the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah wanted them to continue the siege on the civilians in Gaza in order to maintain pressure on Hamas. But in meetings with members of Salaam Fayyad's new cabinet, including Fatah members, they were adamant that this wasn't true.

Speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister, Minister of National Economy Bassem Khoury insisted that the best way to promote peace and the legitimacy of their government was to flood the Gaza Strip with commercial goods, food, and reconstruction equipment. Minister of Public Works Mohamed Shtayyeh, a prominent Fatah leader, agreed and noted that the best and only way to compete with Hamas was on the realm of politics. He had been and remained confident that Fatah could more than hold its own against Hamas if the United States was serious about negotiating an end to the occupation. (You can see an interview my colleague Steve Clemons did with him some months ago here.) Fatah is scheduled to host its Sixth Congress next week which will elect a new generation of leaders (and undoubtedly reaffirm some of the old generation). This may only strengthen their self-confidence.

It seems the divide among Palestinians is evolving. It may end up not being between Hamas and Fatah -- both of whom who are now on record supporting President Obama's efforts to negotiate an end to the occupation with the common negotiating stance that "justice" needs to be ensured for the refugees and East Jerusalem must become the Palestinian capital. The divide may be between those in Palestinian society who trust the democratic process to ensure the best Palestinian leaders rise to positions of authority and those who remain unconvinced of their own skills or their party's.

This is an excellent time for the United States government to begin find ways to cement this progress (and maybe to quietly thank all those European and American statesmen who played a role in getting us this far) and to leverage it into the upcoming negotiations.

Comments

[euripedes923]

memo to St. Cuthbert:
Citing wikipedia as the end-all be-all source for your pro-Israel screeds officially exempts you from debating with adults.
Thanks for playing!

[BubbaC33]

If using Wikipedia is a disqualifier then your fellow Arab apologists, memory alpha, is also disqualified.

[Tyler Westbrook]

Here are videos made in Gaza during a month long visit there. I came with a Code Pink Delegation for International Woman's day, invited by the UN. The Delegation departed, I stayed on, that I might show a bit the world behind the siege.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8030E34DC8051C01
--
Tyler Westbrook
http://www.whynotnews.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/WHYNotNews
Lincoln Vermont USA

[WBMD]

Read Hamas' interview and you will see nothing but a re-statement of the PLO and Fatah "Policy of Stages".

The Palestinians will accept Palestinian jurisdiction (whether Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, etc., will be determined by their own inner battles,) over any land that Israel evacuates, but will NOT abandon claims on the rest of the territory of Israel; will NOT recognize or accept Jewish sovereignty in any part of Manadatory Palestine; will NOT abandon demands that millions of Palestinians be re-settled in, and thus destroy Israel; and will NOT accept any agreement short of Israel's extermination as an end to the conflict.

What, exactly, are the Palestinians conceding?

[JeffKolakowski]

By agreeing to establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, the Palestinians have already conceded 77% of their original territory. Isn’t that enough?

[BubbaC33]

It is beyond goofy for anyone to claim a return to the pre-67 borders will bring about peace in the region. Prior to 1967 the PLO regularly attacked Israel, terrorism was much more of a problem than it is today. Add to that, if an Israel existing within its pre-67 war borders guarantees peace why did the pan-Arab army under Nasser's leadership mass over 100,000 troops on the Israeli borders? It was an act of war and Egypt knew it would provoke a response from Israel. This was especially true after Egypt fired shots closing the Straits of Tiran, also an act of war and the first shots fired in the 1967 Six Day War.
The fact is the Arabs rejected the partition plan in 1947 and gave up any claims to territory in the region.

[misaacm]

It was never their territory. Previous rulers include the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, there has never been an Arab Palestine. There might have been one on the West Bank (conquered from Jordan, not the Palestinians) in 2000, but Arafat wasn't willing to make peace. It remains to be seen whether or not Abbas will.

As for Hamas, I don't see any give in their position. They still reserve the right to flood Israel with millions of angry violent Arabs who have never lived there. Doesn't sound very peaceful to me.

[Tyler Westbrook]

From Gaza: What do you want to say to Americans?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wlfDQqXb6w

[MemoryAlpha]

Request:
Keep posting these. It is vital that Americans hear the truth from the people of Gaza themselves.

[BubbaC33]

I wish I could read the truth in one of your postings.

[Rog49Thomas]

Well, there's the problem with these fanatics - they don't make any allowance for "natural growth".

[MemoryAlpha]

Ironic Observation of Israeli Rhetoric:
Israeli settlers having children = "natural growth"
Israeli Arabs having children = "a demographic threat"

[mikep]

If they are serious about this, then the first step is to formally recognize israel and to change their charter. After this was done, then it's possible to begin serious discussion about borders and other conditions. But negotiations without formal recognition make no legal sense and would have no validity. As far as the 1967 borders are concerned that would only be possible if there was a time machine that could transport everybody back to 1967. Negotiations in 2009 must obviously acknowledge that things have changed and begin with the status quo. But until formal recognition is done, then everyone is just going to assume that this is just another way of avoiding the situation and extending the war. No one is Israel is going to take this seriously. Israel has already made it clear that formal recognition comes first. There's no reason to expect them to change their view. They have the law on their side and the strong support of the rest of the world.

[Maysoon Zayid]

You cannot formally recognize a country with no borders. They are saying draw the border on the '67 line and you'll be recognized.

[BubbaC33]

I am looking at a map of Israel and it indicates where the borders of my nation have been established.

[GZLives]

Huh????
From another current thread here:

"Fatah says 57 of its activists have sneaked out of Hamas-ruled Gaza in recent days to reach the West Bank for a key party convention.

One Fatah delegate says she put on Islamic dress and rode past a Hamas checkpoint on a donkey cart on Friday.

The Islamic militant Hamas and the Western-backed Fatah are bitter rivals.

Hamas has said it will not allow Fatah's 450 convention delegates to leave Gaza unless Fatah's leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, first releases 900 Hamas detainees held in the West Bank.

The Fatah convention begins Tuesday - the first such gathering in 20 years.

Gaza delegate Ghaliya Abu Sitte says she put on an Islamic veil, flagged down a donkey cart, got on and rode past unsuspecting Hamas border guards near Gaza's crossing into Israel.

The two dominant Palestinian groups accuse each other of carrying out political arrests that have crippled Egyptian efforts to broker a deal to restore political unity and boost prospects for a resumption of peace-making with Israel."

Many unfortunate decisions have been made by Palestinians over the years but electing Hamas has to rank at the top ... until these terrorists are gone, expect no changes. And to make matters worse (as if its not bad enough) they are now a wholly owned subsidiary of Tehran.

[misaacm]

I think it is funny that Fatah delegates have to dress in drag to get to their convention. It reminds me of the story that Arafat dressed as a woman to escape the West Bank after Israel crushed the Jordanian army in 1967.

Maybe they should just elect more women to leadership positions and there would be less gender confusion. Oh yeah, I forgot, Arabs don't believe in rights for women.