US Mideast efforts impaired amid Palestinian, Israeli infighting
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Power struggles and partisan frictions within Israel and among the Palestinians have become a hindrance to the peace efforts in the region, including an on-going Mideast tour by US envoy George Mitchell.
Mitchell, who arrived in Israel on Saturday, expected to strike a deal during his visit on an Israeli settlement freeze and revival of the stalled peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.
However, as former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski put it last Friday, both nations are divided -- there lacks a common voice even within their ruling classes respectively.
Israel wants recognition as a Jewish state from the Palestinians and other Arab countries, and hopes to be guaranteed of no more attacks from Palestinian militants.
On the other hand, Hamas, which enjoys huge popularity in the Gaza Strip, has refused to follow the path of its political rival Fatah led by Mahmoud Abbas and insisted militant resistance against the Israelis.
An Islamic Hamas movement lawmaker, Sahah al-Bardawil, said on Friday that Mitchell was trying to get more concessions from the Palestinian side during his Mideast tour.
"Our philosophy is based on ending the Israeli occupation soon, instead of pushing the stalled peace process," said al-Bardawil.
"It is clear that Israel is suffering from an internal crisis and looks for an exit by holding talks with the Palestinians or with other Arab leaders," said Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza.
"Hamas doesn't support any contacts or normalization of relations between the Arabs and Israel, which keeps committing crimes against the Palestinian people," said the spokesman.
As long as Palestinian leader Abbas has no control over the Gaza Strip, he brings little to the negotiation table, said Alon Liel, an Israeli dovish politician, who participated in the talks for the 1993 Oslo Accords, the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Israelis are aware of that, and therefore question his ability to deliver any pledge, Liel said.
Nevertheless, there are also calls for reconciliation among the Palestinians. "(Benjamin) Netanyahu has no trump card on hand but Palestinian division, so we should stop the division as soon as possible in order to build a Palestinian state which has acquired increasing international support," Saeb Erekat, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization told Voice of Palestine.
Meanwhile, Israel is faced with similar problems. It seems that Israeli Premier Netanyahu and his hawkish government are not in perfect accord either.
Although Israeli President Shimon Peres told the US envoy on Sunday that time was now right to restart the peace process this month, he has so far declined the US demand for a total freeze of house-building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Analysts said Netanyahu was trying to placate hard-liners in his coalition government, who were upset about the prospect of a settlement freeze.
Netanyahu could drop out of power at any time in the next four years because of the shaky electoral system in Israel, said Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.
For now, Netanyahu's strategies are paying off at home as his hard-line coalition partners have largely showed support for him.
