Mecca accord lies

Maan News reports:

Ramallah - Ma'an - The head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) has assured that all the demands of the Quartet are found in the Mecca deal.

The Quartet – comprising of the UN, EU, US and Russia – has stipulated that any new Palestinian government must renounce violence, accept the state of Israel's right to exist and adopt the previously signed peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The head of the Fatah bloc, Azzam Al-Ahmad, was speaking with PLC member Qais Abdul-Karim of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), in the West Bank city of Ramallah during a meeting with the press in the ministry of information. He added that great efforts had been taken to reach the Mecca deal and called on all parties to show more commitment to the agreement.

It seems that Fatah assumes, with good reason, that EUdiots and other liberals are so keen on pouring money back into the terrorist PA that they will accept any assurances that the Mecca agreement is the exact opposite of what it states.

As Petra Marquardt-Bigman points out concerning an article that Khaled Mahaal wrote in the Guardian:

Mashaal had all the reasons to present Palestinian demands and threats with the utmost confidence. He knows all too well that in Europe, quite a few people would rather join a demonstration shouting "We are all Hizbullah" than be accused of "blind support" for Israel. Moreover, a Europe that has to contend with Islamic extremists in its midst has become quite receptive to the "linkage" theory that blames Muslim radicalization on the unsolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which, in turn, is often blamed on Israeli intransigence, made possible by US support.

Most of the Western media did not reprint the actual text of the Mecca agreement. There were two parts - the letter where Abbas calls on Haniyeh to "respect" (but not abide or adhere to) past PLO agreements, and then the actual agreement itself:

Based on the generous initiative announced by Saudi King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz and under the sponsorship of his majesty, Fatah and Hamas Movements held in the period February 6-8, 2007 in Holy Mecca the dialogues of Palestinian conciliation and agreement and these dialogues, thanks to God, ended with success and an agreement was reached on the following:

First: to stress on banning the shedding of the Palestinian blood and to take all measures and arrangements to prevent the shedding of the Palestinian blood and to stress on the importance of national unity as basis for national steadfastness and confronting the occupation and to achieve the legitimate national goals of the Palestinian people and adopt the language of dialogue as the sole basis for solving the political disagreements on the Palestinian arena.

Within this context, we offer gratitude to the brothers in Egypt and the Egyptian security delegation in Gaza who exerted tremendous efforts to calm the conditions in Gaza Strip in the past period.

Second: Final agreement to form a Palestinian national unity government according to a detailed agreement ratified by both sides and to start on an urgent basis to take the constitutional measures to form this government.

Third: to move ahead in measures to activate and reform the PLO and accelerate the work of the preparatory committee based on the Cairo and Damascus Understandings.

It has been agreed also on detailed steps between both sides on this issue.

Fourth: to stress on the principle of political partnership on the basis of the effective laws in the PNA and on the basis of political pluralism according to an agreement ratified between both parties.

We gladly announce this agreement to our Palestinian masses and to the Arab and Islamic nation and to all our friends in the world. We stress on our commitment to this agreement in text and spirit so that we can devote our time to achieve our national goals and get rid of the occupation and regain our rights and devote work to the main files, mainly Jerusalem, the refugees, the Aqsa Mosque, the prisoners and detainees and to confront the wall and settlements.

So the true agreement says nothing about even respecting past PA commitments and the only peaceful dialogue it calls for are between Hamas and Fatah.

Anyone who says that the Mecca accords address the Quartet demands, let alone fulfill them, is simply a liar. And a letter that Abbas sends Haniyeh is not an accord saying that Haniyeh even agrees with the murky "respect" clause - we would need a letter from Haniyeh to even imply that.

The fact that the world is so willing to accept an internal Palestinian Arab political power-sharing agreement as anything other than a complete capitulation by Abbas to Hamas is more testament to the power of wishful thinking over reality.

And as the rockets continue to rain down on Israel from the unified Palestinian Arabs without a single word of protest by any Palestinian Arab group, the idea that PalArabs have accepted the Quartet demands goes beyond absurd.