A regular feature of news and opinion pieces from the Israeli and Palestinian press.
1.) There are indications that, just days after the agreement was reached, the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas may be on the verge of collapse. Islamic Jihad has threatened to continue shooting rockets at Israel; over the past few days, several Qassams fired by the militant group have landed in Sderot. The attacks have prompted Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to block the entrance of additional goods into Gaza and have upped the pressure on the Olmert government to act more decisively. Most ominously for the cease-fire, Hamas has been non-committal about cracking down on the activities of Islamic Jihad, stating that they are loathe to confront other Gaza-based militant groups. According to Haaretz:
Hamas said it was exerting pressure on Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, to stop the rocket fire and demanded that Israel open the crossings. But [Hamas lawmaker Khalil] al-Haya said its forces would not confront rocket launching squads on the ground.
“Even if there is a violation by some factions, Hamas emphasizes its commitment to the calm and is working to implement the calm,” al-Haya said. “But Hamas is not going to be a police securing the border of the occupation,” he added. “No one will enjoy a happy moment seeing Hamas holding a rifle in the face of a resistance fighter.”
2.) Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who has long tried to strengthen a system of law and order in the West Bank, has scored a small but important victory. According to Haaretz, Palestinian security forces have succeeded in discouraging rock-throwing at Israeli vehicles in the town of Qalqilyah and in nearby villages. “In the past few years, the stone throwers have made life difficult for settlers in the area, and for Israelis driving on the Trans-Samaria Highway and Road 55,” notes the article. “Young Palestinians, mainly teenagers, would take up positions on the hills overlooking these roads, and rain rocks down on almost every car with Israeli license plates.” Recently, Palestinian security forces have gone into schools and publicly urged students not to take aim at occupation by assaulting passing cars. In the past six weeks, as a result, incidents of rock-throwing have dropped dramatically. Israeli authorities, encouraged by the development, have agreed to remove dozens of dirt barriers restricting Palestinian movement.
3.) Saudi Arabia has explicitly rejected establishing a bilateral peace agreement with Israel, as countries like Jordan and Egypt have previously done. A top Saudi official has indicated that recognition and a lessening of tensions would only be achieved as part of a regional accord. Prince Tourki M. Saud al-Kabeer, Saudi Arabia’s Assistant Deputy Minister for Political Affairs, suggested on Wednesday that the 2002 Arab peace initiative — an Arab League-endorsed proposal that agrees to region-wide normalization of relations in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian state and an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory — is still the model around which any future agreement will be styled.
4.) The Jerusalem Post has a report detailing a behind-the-scenes power struggle that is occurring within the Palestinian Authority. With Mahmoud Abbas’s term set to expire in early 2009, there is speculation about several prominent Palestinian leaders who are thought to be quietly jockeying to succeed him. Quoted here at some length, the article reads:
According to sources in Ramallah, among the potential candidates to succeed Abbas are Prime Minister Salaam Fayad, jailed Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti, former prime minister Ahmed Qurei, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and former Fatah security commander Muhammed Dahlan. The sources said that each one of the potential candidates is working in his own way to improve his chances of becoming the third president of the PA.
Qurei, for example, is trying to project himself as a “tough” negotiator who would never compromise the full rights of the Palestinians. This line became clear this week when Qurei invited a number of Palestinian journalists to his home in the village of Abu Dis and told them that “whenever the Israelis take a piece of land, it’s as though they are taking a piece of my flesh.” Qurei also recounted how he shouted at and rebuked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni during the negotiation sessions in Jerusalem over the past few months.
Fayad, for his part, has doubled his efforts to highlight his “achievements” in enforcing law and order, and combating financial corruption. In recent weeks, he, too, has been trying to portray himself as a strong and charismatic leader by making fiery statements about the peace process with Israel, and calling for an end to anarchy in the West Bank. And he has earned the respect of many Palestinians for campaigning against the upgrading of relations between Israel and the European Union. Both Qurei and Fayad insist that they have no ambitions to succeed Abbas, but their high-profile actions and rhetoric have aroused suspicion among the PA president’s inner circle as to their real intentions.
As for Barghouti, he has managed in the past few years to present himself to many Palestinians as the only person who could rehabilitate Fatah and lead it to victory in future elections. Barghouti sees himself as the leader of the “young guard” camp in Fatah that will one day revolt against the veteran and corrupt leadership that came with Yasser Arafat from Tunisia after the signing of the Oslo Accords. Public opinion polls indicate that he’s not doing too badly on this score.
5.) Although good news about relations between Israelis and Palestinians is rare, a new study has provided some small cause for optimism. The findings of the study show that despite decades of mutual distrust and conflict, a broad majority of the Israeli public wants to live in peace with, and with tolerance towards, its neighbors.
The study was aimed at examining the relations between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens on the State’s 60th anniversary, and included 1,721 respondents. The findings…revealed that a great majority of Israel’s citizens (73% of the Jews and 94% of the Arabs) want to live in a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities.
The study went on to show that 68% of Jewish citizens support teaching conversational Arabic in Jewish schools to help bring Arab and Jewish citizens together, and 69% believe contributing to coexistence is a personal responsibility. Sixty-six percent of Jewish citizens and 84% of Arab citizens believe the Israeli government investments should begin now, and not wait until the end of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.