JERUSALEM, March 15 (UPI) -- Palestinian leaders have agreed to form a broad-based national unity government they hope will win international recognition, sorely needed aid, and restore order to embattled streets.
The proposed government will be presented to the Legislative Council on Saturday for a vote of confidence it seems sure to win. It brings together the Islamic Hamas, the nationalist Fatah and several smaller, sometimes leftist groups. It will not include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command or the Islamic Jihad. The latter group continues to actively fight Israel.
Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh, who headed the outgoing government, will be prime minister of the new government as well. His deputy will be Azzam al-Ahmad who headed Fatah's parliamentary bloc and has been a foe of Hamas. He was never interested in cooperation but now he is cooperating, noted Prof. Helga Baumgarten, a political science scholar at Bir Zeit University.
Two key positions were given to people believed to have had very good ties in the United States. Salam Fayyad, who had worked at the World Bank, initiated financial reforms in the Palestinian Authority and fought corruption, will be finance minister. Ziad Abu Amr, a U.S. trained political science processor who taught at Bir Zeit University, will be foreign minister.
Neither belongs to any of two major parties. Fayyad represents the small Third Way party and Abu-Amr ran in the elections as an independent. Hamas backed him but Fatah nominated him for this post. "He is in between the two (parties)," Baumgarten said.
The intriguing nomination is that of the interior minister who controls the armed forces. After wrangling debates Fatah and Hamas decided to appoint Hani Talab al-Qawasami, a director in the ministry of religious affairs whose political ties are unclear and who is not an experienced security man.
Evidently neither Hamas nor Fatah wanted to give ground on such a key position so they compromised on someone whom Israeli intelligence retired Brig. Gen. Shalom Harari described as a person "who can hurt no one."
The platform says the government "shall respect the... agreements that were signed by the PLO."
The PLO, or the Palestine Liberation Organization, is the body that concluded agreements with Israel and the undertaking to "respect" those agreements falls short of a promise to abide by them. The platform rejects the interim stage of the internationally devised roadmap for peace that talks of a Palestinian state with temporary borders.
President Mahmoud Abbas has been trying to skip that stage and negotiate the permanent status agreement.
The program seems to give no ground on the refugee issues. It stresses their, "Right of return to their lands and properties," a topic that could break any peace talks with Israel. The negotiators seemed to compromise on the continued struggle against Israel.
"Resistance is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people" and halting it "depends on ending the occupation and achieving freedom, return and independence," the paper says.
However, "despite this," the new government would strive for a truce "in return for Israel halting its occupation measures on the ground." The document talked of a cessation of targeted killings, arrests, incursions, home demolitions and "lifting all the restrictions on movement and the release of prisoners." According to this text, than an aide to President Abbas confirmed, the proposed truce is not being offered on condition Israel withdraw from more lands.
Abbas will be authorized to negotiate with Israel but "any offer on any final agreement should be presented to the new Palestinian National Council for ratification or to ... a general referendum" among all Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and abroad.
The government's top priority is "to control the current security conditions," the paper continued.
Battles between Fatah and Hamas militants have continued. Wednesday evening a Fatah militant was killed, nine others were injured and both Fatah and Hamas kidnapped people in Gaza.
The platform talked of restructuring the security services and building them "on (a) professional basis." It talked of reducing "partisan considerations," there.
In an indication that some militants do as they please, the paper talked of making sure "that the personnel working in these services commit themselves to the tasks commissioned to them."
Harari told UPI he doubted the designated interior minister could unite and manage the security services.
But on the whole, Baumgarten said the designated government might succeed, partly because of Saudi support. There were reports that the Saudis promised $1 billion in aid. Moreover, the Palestinians want the government to succeed, Baumgarten said. Potential troublemakers, such as Fatah's former minister Mohammad Dhalan, appeared to have been sidetracked.
One of the main questions now is whether the international community would agree to deal with the new government and whether aide will resume. Many Palestinian families can hardly manage any more. Even the traditional net of family ties, that helped needy individuals, "is hardly managing," Baumgarten said.
However once a new government assumes offices "people will await results," she predicted.
France has already welcomed the new government and there were signs that other European Union members are willing to deal with it. The Israeli government remained adamant. Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Mark Regev, said the new government's platform, "Offers neither explicit nor implicit acceptance of the three demands of the Quartet," comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.
There is, "No recognition of Israel, no renunciation of terrorism and no acceptance of signed agreements.
"Accordingly, Israel will not deal with the new government. We call upon the international community to stand by its principles not to give this new government legitimacy or recognition," Regev added.
Abbas' media adviser, Nabiel Abu Rudaineh, anticipated difficulties. "Things are not easy but we will go to the international community, united, and say to the world that 'This is the Palestinians' government and you have to deal with it,'" he said.
