M. J. Rosenberg, Israel Policy Forum, 31/08/07. Any deal that is perceived as a device to empower Fatah while cutting out its opponents will be blown up, literally, by Hamas and others. The name of the game should be empowering Abbas by reaching a deal with him that Hamas will feel pressured by Palestinians to support. The only way to be rid of Hamas is to truly empower Abbas, without making him look like he is, as one Hamas spokesman put it, the Israeli government minister in charge of Palestinian affairs.
A good deal allows each party to feel (rightly or wrongly) that it is a winner. The sure recipe for failure is to use an agreement as a bludgeon against a party whose opposition would kill it. Does Israel really want Abbas to succeed or, as in the past, is it satisfied using Hamas as a pretext to avoid dealing with the issue of borders, settlements and Jerusalem for another generation? We'll know soon.
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