PA miffed at Egyptian-Saudi deal with Hamas over hajj pilgrims
PA official: Egypt 'stabbed us in the back' for allowing Gazans to cross into Sinai en route to Saudi Arabia.
By Avi Issacharoff Tags: Saudi Arabia Hosni Mubarak Mahmoud AbbasThe news from the Rafah border crossing earlier this week astounded the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. They had arranged with Israel to allow some 2,000 Palestinians from Gaza to go to Saudi Arabia via the Kerem Shalom and Allenby Bridge border crossings for the hajj celebrations.
But Cairo apparently had different plans. The Egyptians allowed 700 Palestinians on Monday and 1,300 on Tuesday to cross the border into Sinai, where buses were waiting to take them to Saudi Arabia.
"The Egyptians stabbed us in the back," a senior PA official said. It turned out that the move had been coordinated with the Hamas government and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi embassy in Cairo swiftly processed the Gaza pilgrims' visa applications sent by the Hamas government, while the Saudi embassy in Amman held up all the visa applications sent by the PA, even those of West Bank pilgrims.
The PA, which had invested huge efforts in organizing the pilgrims' trip to Saudi Arabia in a bid to improve President Mahmoud Abbas' status in the Gaza Strip, was enraged by Egypt and Saudi Arabia's conduct. The PA official in charge of civil coordination, Hussein al-Sheikh, had told the people in Gaza that the visas Hamas would issue for traveling to Saudi Arabia would be invalid. PA officials managed to reach an agreement with the Israeli authorities on taking some 2,000 people out of Gaza and transferring them through Israel - an unprecedented understanding in Hamas-era Gaza.
Ismail Haniyeh's government, however, had assured Gaza Strip residents all along that the pilgrims would leave via the Rafah crossing in coordination with Egypt. In other words, this was a planned move.
PA officials have difficulty understanding why Egypt and Saudi Arabia acted against Abbas' interests in this way. Only a week earlier Abbas met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Now they assume that Cairo and Riyadh wanted to protest Abbas' persistent refusal to resume the dialogue with Hamas. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have recently given Abbas hints that he should resume the talks, but a senior Palestinian official said that "all told it's a continuation of the Egyptian game and the dual policy regarding Hamas."
Indeed, it seems that despite Egypt's repeated assertions of its uncompromising war on Hamas and Gaza terror organizations, Cairo and especially Egyptian intelligence officials prefer to keep normal relations with Hamas, even at Abbas' expense.
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Palestinian pilgrims crossing the Rafah border from Gaza to Egypt en route to Mecca. (AP) |
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German Girl-- I'm not Jewish. ...I'm for the Palestinians/Peace. AND-- One of the ways to have peace/a future for the Palestinians is to marginalize the people who want to keep fighting/the extremists...ON BOTH SIDES! Clearly-- Abbas is fighting for peace! Also as clear, is that groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc....do not!! So-- There's a choice to be made by all/by all countries...ON BOTH SIDES: One can be a force for peace/positive things, or, one can be a force for continued death, suffering & war. Egypt & Saudi Arabia's Aid To Hamas-- Especially, at Abbas' expense, is in no way positive: Remember Hamas CONTINUES to threaten VIOLENCE against Abbas, & it doesn't want peace. They are Hamas'/these other groups' enablers! So-- Since they won't be forces for peace/the positive, the "Hamas/extremists problem" should become theirs: MOVE Hamas, etc. to their countries & then BLOCKADE/BOYCOTT/SANCTION! This conflict has gone on long enough!
Hamas is basically a shoot off of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. No point in disapointing them, Egypt has no guts for more than the necessary daily confontations it already has with the Brotherhood.
What people do mean when you bless the Gazans ? I know who you are NOT referring to.The UNBLESSED of Gaza include the Jews who were ethnically cleansed,the Gaza Christians who are shrinking into non-existence, the Fatah members who are shot at and killed in the rallys, the members of the Gaza business community who fail to fall within Islamist guidelines, etc. Please clarify who you send your blessings to.
They were democratically elected. The staged coup by Fatah, the US and the zionist entreprise is not going to change this.
It is so clear.
THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IS MAKING EVERYONE IN THE ARAB WORLD ANGRY BY DRAGGING THEM INTO ANAPOLIS TO APPEASE ISRAEL. PA'S RELATIONS WITH ARABS WILL SUFFER AND ISRAEL WILL SUFFER TOO. ISRAEL IS THE ONE WHO STABS EVRYONE.
The pilgrimage deal has nothing to do with Hamas,Fatah. but it has to do,with making it easy for the pilgrims to go easier and faster to Saudi Arabia. why to let them travel through Israel, or go through Jordan? what is the average Palestinian has to do with the fight between Hamas and Fatah?. let's stop being silly and try to put things in its real contentions.
Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia think that Abbas has gone too far in cosying up to the Israelis and Condi Rice. His stubborn refusal to back track and open dialogue with Hamas is a cause for concern not only in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh but more importantly inside Palestine itself and amongst the Palestinian people in the diaspora. No one can explain why Abbas is taking a tough stance on Hamas while being so accommodating with the Israelis? Abbas has very little credibility amongst Palestinians, Arabs and Islamic nations. He is seen as an Israeli puppet and someone in the pocket of the Bush administration. Even the Jordanians are wary of his intimate relations with Olmert. Saudi and Egypt are doing the right thing by allowing the pilgrims to travel directly to Mecca through Egypt. Abbas is a loser.
German Girl has a perfect education in line with her country's tradition: put the blame on the jews. Gaza is governed by a bunch of terrorists that want the destruction of Israel more than to build a state of their own. She wants Israel to help Hamas in this job. Gazans had an opportunity to become the Singapore of the middle east, as Palestinians said, but instead they became the Somalia of the region.
Most of these Gazans are refugees from the heart of Israel. Haven't these people suffered enough? The bombings, shellings, tank incursions, home demolitions. Now fuel and power cutoffs. Can't you leave these people alone?
Is it a subconscious urge to emulate their former oppressors? Why doesn't Israel just leave Gaza alone? Let Gazans travel freely, obtain food freely, work their fields freely? Then there would be no rockets.
NO UNDERMINING Abbas/Moderates! Hamas/similar others...aren`t even close to being on the same level as Abbas/other Moderates! If A State Were Granted Tomorrow-- Who`s likely to be more responsible, less likely to reinitiate violence/terrorism, less likely to give a foothold to Iran? Abbas & Moderates! I`m Always Suspicious-- Of those who keep insisting on reconciliation between Fatah & Hamas NOW. ...I see this as a tool to keep them "at each other"...to weaken their ability to deal with Israel/external things: For Abbas the primary external thing to do now...IS MAKE PEACE! Further-- Why waste Palestinians` future on Hamas NOW? Peace with Hamas has been tried before. Palestinians & Hamas-- Need to know that Hamas`/similar others` ways ARE NOT the way to go! It Was Best-- That they learned this EARLY...Hamas was their example of a direction not to take! We Must SUPPORT/ELEVATE-- Moderates, rational people & peacemakers...NOT dreamland resistance!
Same goes for Israel.
Fatah was given a chance to rul;e palestinians, but they blew it big time. corruption and organize crimes rise significantly during Fatah rule. Why do you think Hamas won the election in the first place? you don't blame Hamas for doing a good job, fatah should blame themselves for failing when they have a chance. And let me say this, FATAH CAN ONLY SURVIVE SOFAR WITH THE SUPPORT OF ISRAEL AND THE US. so in palestinian view, current Fatah administration are nothing more then the Israel lackey.
I usually say that the solution is to put Fatah/all who support peace in the West Bank...& put Hamas/all who want to continue fighting in Gaza. That's still the preferred option! HOWEVER-- Since countries like Egypt & Saudi Arabia feel such a need to help/protect Hamas (& help/protect them over Fatah); And, since they're so in favor of Hamas remaining a thorn in Fatah`s side/a hindrance to peace & progress (by being a part of sabotaging the Palestinians/Palestinian State by pushing Fatah "to be/stay busy" in a "tried before & go nowhere situation" with Hamas); THEY should absorb all of Hamas (& similar) into their countries...then THEIR countries should be BLOCKADED, BOYCOTTED & SANCTIONED...to contain Hamas & similar!! Fatah-- Is just dealing with a party that violently overthrew their people. ...A party that, even now, CONTINUES to threaten violence against them! I Guarantee You-- If Hamas, were in Egypt, Saudi Arabia...worse would be done! HYPOCRITES!
NO UNDERMINING Abbas/Moderates! Hamas/similar others...aren`t even close to being on the same level as Abbas/other Moderates! If A State Were Granted Tomorrow-- Who`s likely to be more responsible, less likely to reinitiate violence/terrorism, less likely to give a foothold to Iran? Abbas & Moderates! I`m Always Suspicious-- Of those who keep insisting on reconciliation between Fatah & Hamas NOW. ...I see this as a tool to keep them "at each other"...to weaken their ability to deal with Israel/external things: For Abbas the primary external thing to do now...IS MAKE PEACE! Further-- Why waste Palestinians` future on Hamas NOW? Peace with Hamas has been tried before. Palestinians & Hamas-- Need to know that Hamas`/similar others` ways ARE NOT the way to go! It Was Best-- That they learned this EARLY...Hamas was their example of a direction not to take! We Must SUPPORT/ELEVATE-- Moderates, rational people & peacemakers...NOT dreamland resistance!
OF COURSE they will let them how can one limit the number of people traveling to their sacred religious place of prayer the fact that abbas is astonished shows how much he is his govt's people (being sarcastic)
So, what is new? Anyone who expects the Middle Eastern regimes to act honourably, will be highly mistaken.
The Pilgrims are going, and it's good they had negotiated for them two ways to let them leave. Hopfully they will be allowed back!
This actually makes me believe that the Saudis and Egyptians truly want reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.
They may say they support Abbas, but abbas is not really the type the Egypt nor Saudi can count on in case the going gets rough between the Arab states and the Israel. Hamas controlled Gaza serve as a buffer to keep in check the reduce but always present possibility of Israel expansionistic ambition.