By condemning Mahmoud Abbas’ suggestion for early elections, Hamas has made the already arduous task of forming a national unity government that much more difficult. Early elections could break the stalemate. More likely though, they will not. Hamas is worried it will not repeat its stunning January electoral victory and it is probably right.
Things have not turned out as Hamas or the people who voted for it expected. Peace negotiations — including a state, the right of return, prisoners — have not moved one inch during this period. There has been a debilitating six-month siege on Gaza which has only just ended; the Palestinians became an isolated people accorded pariah status. Hamas’ refusal to meet the principles of the Quartet — recognition of Israel, renouncing violence, and accepting previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements — has in turn, strangled the Palestinian economy. Till today, violence continues to flare in the occupied territories, instigated by Palestinians who have not received their salaries in months.
When the Palestinians turn to Abbas, who has relatively good relations with the international community, they see he has helped funnel nearly $250 million in aid this year from Arab countries meant to counter the effects of the Western boycott.
To blame Hamas or those who support it for the cutting off of Western aid is to do a serious disservice to the concept of human rights and democracy. Hamas is the elected voice of the Palestinians. They are in power — not by chance or by force, but by the free will of Palestinians who practiced their inalienable right to choose their own leaders. That the West did not agree with the selection process should not have been a problem — but it has become one.
The cold reality is that Western aid and recognition will not be forthcoming as long as Hamas does not recognize Israel. Born from that stalemate came the idea of a national unity government, a government that can at least in style, if not in substance, give implicit, tacit approval that there is a state called Israel. But the absence of guarantees that sanctions on the Palestinians will be lifted the moment the new government is formed and becomes functional, the insistence of some segments within Fatah that the next government be a government of technocrats or experts, which Hamas said would be ineffective and weak; and the yet-to-be resolved issue of the captured Israeli soldier have all delayed this government. Thus, Abbas’ suggestion for early elections is a quick way out of the dilemma and a move that could lead to progress on many fronts. It should not be construed, as Hamas has described it, as a coup or an affront to the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s most recent statement made in Iran — that Hamas would never recognize Israel and would fight for control of Jerusalem — makes it increasingly unlikely a national unity government will be formed and thus all the more reason why early elections will be called. They may be the only way left for the Palestinians.
