EGYPT is pressing Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction to form a unity government but its efforts may be doomed by Western powers' reluctance to accept ministers from the Islamist party. Neither the Obama administration nor the European Union is ready to offer more than vague and conditional encouragement to a coalition intended to heal the schism in Palestinian politics. As a result, there appears to be little incentive for Hamas to concede power to its Palestinian rivals, especially if it calculates the European Union will not let its distaste for Hamas prevent it supplying reconstruction aid to Gaza. Though Egypt has proposed a meeting of the factions in Cairo on Feb. 22, there are few signs Hamas or Fatah are willing to make the difficult compromises needed to bring a lasting end to their schism, which has helped Israel make the case that the Palestinians are not ready for statehood. Many in Hamas suspect the reconciliation process is little more than a ploy to get the group to give up the Gaza Strip, which it seized from Abbas's security forces in June 2007, and other trappings of power. These suspicions have their roots in Hamas's experience of being shunned after winning a 2006 parliamentary election and forming a short-lived unity government a year later. Egypt has bundled reconciliation into a broader ceasefire deal to stabilize the Gaza Strip after last month's Israeli offensive. Cairo has some leverage over Hamas but the broader acceptance sought by Hamas is something it cannot offer. Constraints The administration of US President Barack Obama faces stiff opposition within the US Congress to easing sanctions as long as Hamas refuses to renounce violence against Israel. The EU is likewise constrained because of its policy-by-consensus structure although the number of states open to engaging with Hamas is growing. Abbas wants Hamas and Fatah to form an interim caretaker government composed of technocrats who would oversee Gaza's reconstruction and lay the ground for new elections. That means Hamas would have to sacrifice the premiership and other posts, and agree on a platform acceptable to Western powers that want Palestinian-Israeli peace talks to restart. “We don't want a government of national unity that would face sanctions from the international community,” said Abbas aide and senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat. “So it's not easy,” he added, referring to reaching a compromise over a government platform. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Obama administration has yet to formulate a final position, said a purely technocratic government, free of active Hamas or Fatah members, would have to adopt a platform that would “accommodate a two-state solution” with Israel to be acceptable. If the cabinet included Hamas ministers, then three Western demands set in 2006 – that the Palestinian government recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals – would have to be met more explicitly, the US official said. Hamas has made clear it will not accept a technocratic government, let alone one that embraces the three conditions. “We have been locked in a counterproductive policy,” a senior Western diplomat said of past US insistence on strictly applying the conditions. The diplomat held out little hope either side would change enough to break the deadlock. Despite some overtures from Europe, “nobody wants Hamas to be legitimized” until it meets Western demands to soften its stance on Israel, said Marc Otte, the EU's Middle East envoy. “De-emphasizing the three conditions as the main headline doesn't mean that you want to get rid of them,” he told Reuters. Opposed by then-US President George W. Bush, that unity agreement broke down almost immediately as Hamas and Fatah fought to control Palestinian security forces. It is unclear how a new unity pact would avoid a similar pitfall.
