If the report that appeared in the Qatari Al Sharq newspaper on Aug. 24 can be trusted, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is preparing a somewhat unpleasant surprise for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The report claimed that at a meeting this past weekend in Doha between Abbas and Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas' political bureau, it was agreed that Abbas would present US Secretary of State John Kerry with a deadline. He would tell Kerry that the United States has a month to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiations with Israel, or he would dismantle the Palestinian Authority and hand all the occupied territories, including the Gaza Strip, back to Netanyahu.
This report was preceded by a surprising interview that Meshaal gave to the Hamas website Aug. 11. In response to the question of whether he can imagine one day sitting down at the negotiating table with Israel, Meshaal responded, “Negotiations between enemies is a well-known phenomenon throughout all of history and politics. It is not forbidden from a religious perspective. Negotiations have their own foundations and calculations. There is a verse in the Quran that says, 'And if they incline to peace, then incline to it [also].'"
