Muhammad Shtayyeh, a former Palestinian Authority minister and a top Fatah
official, declared over the weekend that the PA leadership would step up its
encouragement of “popular, unarmed resistance” against Israel while pursuing its
commitment to achieve peace.
His declaration came amid growing talk that
the Palestinians were close to launching a third intifada.
“Without
increasing the cost of the occupation to the Israelis, they will not be in a
position to withdraw,” the former PA public works and housing minister told
guests at a Christmas dinner in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. “The Israeli
occupation has to be costly, otherwise we will not see much change on the
ground.”
Shtayyeh, who previously served as member of the PA negotiating
team with Israel, said that Fatah was headed toward ending its dispute with
Hamas.
“We are going into the direction of reconciliation. For the first
time, I myself, I feel hopeful that this is going to be possible,” he said. “The
general mood of the public is positive.
The people in Gaza feel that they
have won something, that they won the battle of Gaza [last month]. And the
general mood of the public in the West Bank is also rising because of the vote
at the United Nations [General Assembly on November 29]. Each side feels that he
won the battle that he wanted to, and these two rising moods are capable of
making a compromise.”
Shtayyeh dismissed Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal’s
triumphal speech in Gaza City on December 8 that envisioned a Palestine “from
the river to the sea” as the final words of a man “leaving the political
scene.”
“I don’t take what he said very seriously, it was the euphoria,”
Shtayyeh said. “I take what Mashaal said seriously when he was calm, when he was
sitting down in a chair and engaging in political dialogue with Abu Mazen [PA
President Mahmoud Abbas].”
According to Shtayyeh, Mashaal said three
important things during his recent meeting with Abbas. “He [Mashaal] is ready
for a two-state solution; he is ready for peaceful resistance; and he is ready
for the continuation of negotiations if they prove to be fruitful,” Shtayyeh
said.
Shtayyeh criticized the US administration for failing to get
involved in the Middle East peace process. He predicted zero progress “if the
American president is not going to be engaged again.”
He said that there
was “nobody there in Washington to offer anything. [Former US envoy Senator
George] Mitchell has resigned and he has not been replaced. [State Department
official] Jeff Feltman is now working for [UN Secretary-General] Ban
Kimoon.
[Former US Middle East envoy] Dennis Ross has resigned and has
not been replaced. There is nobody there working on the file.”
Shtayyeh
also lashed out at the Mideast Quartet and its representative, former British
prime minister Tony Blair.
“The Quartet has been useless, useless,
useless. The Quartet has been useless,” he repeated. “I don’t really think that
Ban Ki-moon should be a member of the Quartet. The UN should never be in such a
forum.”