Sunday, February 11, 2007

Palestinian Unity Govermnent

While most of the postings you see here will be about the lies and distortions of our enemies, occasionally a brief note on current events in Israel is necessary. We feel that the creation of a unity government in the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be falsely used to demonize Israel as “not serious about peace,” similar to the reaction of some following the release of the “Prisoner’s Document.” As such, a small briefing is necessary to attempt to help prevent distortions of the situation.

The main factions in the Palestinian Parliament, Fatah and Hamas, have finally come to an agreement that will allow them to form a unity government. The main purpose of this agreement, known as the Mecca Accords, is to bring Palestinian society back from the brink of civil war. Indeed, violence between supporters of each faction has claimed the lives of over 60 people including several children.

Hoping to inflate the significance of this agreement, the new Unity Government is trying to claim that this will not only end the violence in the streets of the territories, but will end the economic blockade of the PA government.

Sadly, the new unity government still does not meet Quartet (USA, EU, UN, and Russia) demands. The Quartet has repeatedly stated these demands are non-negotiable and even released a statement in the wake of the formation of the unity government reaffirming these demands.

As a refresher, those demands are
1. Recognition of Israel
2. Renunciation of violence
3. Acceptance of previous signed agreements

The Mecca Accords only fulfills the last requirement. You can read the Mecca Accords statement here.

As some may recall, even before Hamas was elected to lead the PA, international disappointment with the Fatah led PA was growing and they were threatening to withhold aid if the PA failed to stop funding and fueling violence against Israeli civilians.

The international freeze on aid to the Palestinian Authority is not about who is in power, but about their commitment to building peace in the region.

1 comment:

  1. Remember, they have five weeks in which to form their unity government.

    That's five weeks more of loose truce.

    Any number of intramural targets of convenience can be whacked at during that time.

    Like crack and anti-Semitism, political assasination is an addiction.

    ReplyDelete