Israel also transfers weapons to Abbas supporters to 'protect his life.'
In a move designed to force the Hamas-led government to recognize Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has given the governing party 10 days to accept the idea of a Palestinian nation existing alongside Israel, or he will call a national referendum on the issue. The Associated Press reports that Mr. Abbas wants to force rival Palestinian factions to agree on a framework for negotiating with Israel.
The referendum would be based on a plan reached this month by prominent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The proposal calls for a Palestinian nation alongside Israel, to include territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, including all of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with a capital in East Jerusalem.
Approving the plan would imply recognition of Israel – one of the three conditions imposed by Israel and the West for doing business with the Hamas-led government. However, it doesn't meet the other two: renouncing violence and accepting past peace accords. It wasn't known whether the international boycott of the Palestinian Authority would be called off even if a referendum passed.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the prisoners who wrote the plan represent its best chance of acceptance.
The prisoners represent not just Hamas, but all major factions, including Mr Abbas's own Fatah movement and Islamic Jihad. It was debated inside high-security cells and drawn up under the eyes of prison guards during exercise periods.
In parts verbose and repetitive, the document nevertheless implies an acceptance of the right of Israel by claiming a Palestinian homeland only on land occupied by Israel in 1967 - Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. If [Abbas] could persuade the Hamas leadership to accept the 18-point prison accord it would mean the movement had dropped its original claim on all the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.
Reaction to the plan from both Hamas and Israeli leaders was mixed. Reuters reports that a member of Hamas's exiled leadership in Syria said the group would not be blackmailed into accepting Abbas's plan, with its implied recognition of Israel. But he also did not dismiss it completely. Agence-France Presse reports that Israel is unlikely to accept the plan, which has been dubbed 'the prisoners' resolution' because it calls for a return to the pre-1967 borders, which would mean that Israel would have to return land it seized in the West Bank and in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Hamas has ordered its militia off the streets of Gaza to prevent clashes with fighters from the Fatah movement that had some talking about a possible civil war. Clashes between the two groups intensified during the past week when Hamas deployed the 3,000 member militia. The government has said that while it has withdrawn the fighters for now, they would not disband the unit, but integrate it into the regular Palestinian police force.
Reuters reports that on Thursday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz allowed the transfer of weapons from Israel to Abbas's supporters, because they feared for his life. The Jerusalem Post reports that Friday, Abbas's office said that it had not asked for the weapons transfer in order to strengthen the president's position against Hamas.
Sources in the Likud were quick to condemn the decision. 'Whoever gives weapons to the [Palestinian] Authority gives legitimacy to the rest of the world to transfer money to the PA,' said MK Yuval Steinitz.
This was the first time that Israel took an active role in the clashes between Hamas members and Palestinian security forces started a week ago.
An editorial Friday in the Washington Post, however, argues that even if Abbas regains some of his political power and becomes a credible partner, Israel would probably still go ahead and draw up new borders unilaterially.
According to reports in the Israeli press, [Israeli Prime Minister Olmert]is thinking of dismantling only a small fraction of the West Bank settlements that lie beyond the boundary fence Israel is constructing, which means that settlers and the army would remain in the Palestinian territory indefinitely. He also intends to annex all of Jerusalem's Old City and most of its Arab neighborhoods, even though a previous Israeli government recognized that a peace settlement will require divided sovereignty in the city.
The Post argues that while President Bush has recognized that Israel will incorporate large settlements near the border into Israel, it's imperative that Mr. Bush force Mr. Olmert to adopt 'the territorial map that was negotiated by Israelis and Palestinians after the Camp David talks of 2000' as it will increase the chances of leading to a real peace.