Fatah and Hamas can’t agree on when, how or even whether to hold elections they say they want for the legislative council and president.
By DOUGLAS BLOOMFIELD
Palestinian election officials began a week-long voter registration drive in the West Bank and Gaza Monday in preparation for elections that probably won’t be held. Rival factions Fatah and Hamas can’t agree on when, how or even whether to hold elections they say they want for the legislative council and president.That split will be one more factor if, as expected, President Barack Obama offers no new major peace initiatives or proposals for resumed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations when he visits the region next month. And any Hamas-Fatah reconciliation could be the final nail in the coffin of once-promising peace talks.The latest attempt at reconciliation failed this weekend in Cairo, as have all previous efforts despite mutual declarations of commitment to a unified Palestinian leadership, and the outlook for the future is bleak. Reconciliation is popular on the Palestinian street but not at the leadership level, despite all their brotherly rhetoric. The two competing movements have opposite viewpoints, fear the other seeks control over its territory (true) and their leaders dislike and distrust each other.Fatah, the moderate and secular party that dominates the West Bank, recognizes Israel, supports the two-state solution and maintains relations with the Jewish state, most importantly on security matters. Hamas, the militant Islamist group which controls Gaza, vehemently opposes any cooperation or compromise with Israel, whose destruction remains its central goal, as it is of its Iranian patrons.For all their talk of brotherhood and dedication to the Palestinian cause, Fatah and Hamas would each like to see the other destroyed. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah in a bloody coup in 2007 and has been plotting a West Bank takeover ever since, which helps explain why elections remain elusive.Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader and president of the Palestinian Authority, wants to appoint an interim government of nonpartisan technocrats to prepare for elections within three months. Hamas wants to put some of its own people in the interim government and opposes setting a date for elections.That leads to concern that once Hamas becomes part of the government there will be no elections and it will use its new position to try to take over the PA.Israelis remember that when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 Hamas soon took over and turned the area into a base for sending suicide bombers, missiles and rockets into Israel, and they expect the same thing would happen if Hamas achieved its goal of controlling the PA and the West Bank.Abbas has refused Hamas’ demand that Fatah end security cooperation with Israel, which has led to the arrest of many Hamas terrorists by both the PA and Israeli forces. That cooperation, with American funding and training – along with construction of Israel’s controversial security barrier – has kept Hamas terrorists from operating inside the West Bank and infiltrating into Israel. A better-trained and professional security force, replacing Yasser Arafat’s corrupt and inept policy, has also made life safer for West Bankers.Abbas was elected president in 2005 and the parliament the following year, each for a four-year term. There have been no national elections since. The legislature hasn’t even convened since the 2007 Hamas coup.