Hamas, Fatah ignore elephant in the room, for now
Egypt believes that building trust between Hamas and Fatah should precede clarifying the remaining difficult issues between them, such as what to do about Hamas’ military wing.
Only two days were needed for Fatah and Hamas to agree to a framework for reconciliation and turn over a new leaf. According to the agreement reached in Cairo on Oct. 12, administrative authorities will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA); Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ people will oversee the crossings between Gaza and Israel; the Palestinian Presidential Guard will be posted at the Rafah crossing at the Egypt-Gaza border and European agents will ensure weapons are not smuggled into Gaza.
In 48 hours, the two sides appear to have succeeded in skipping over all of the obstacles and bridging all of the rifts, after agreeing not to discuss the most essential issue, the root of the problem, the main difference that has stood between them for more than 10 years: control over Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
In fact, Fatah and Hamas agreed on all the points over which they had no disagreement. For instance, control over the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel. To allow the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings to operate, PA personnel had remained there even after Hamas' military revolt in Gaza in 2007, playing the same role they held before the rebellion. They remained there even after Abbas decided to cut PA assistance to Gaza earlier this year.
As for the Rafah crossing, deploying the Presidential Guard there, supervised by European agents, is an unequivocal demand from Egypt. Lacking this arrangement, the Egyptians would not have allowed the opening of the crossing, which has become the territory’s oxygen supply. Even a significant hurdle such as dissolving the administrative council Hamas established in Gaza was removed a month ago, on Sept. 11, on the eve of Hamas’ announcement of its desire for reconciliation.
