EU should not wait for US nod

Under the aegis of the Saudi mediation, Fatah and Hamas have decided to form a national unity government. Their union is a sigh of relief for the Palestinians, who have been traumatised by the hardening of Israeli military occupation, because skirmishes between Palestinian rival factions would probably come to an end. But if a new and hopeful improvement of the fate of the Palestinian people is in sight, it is far from being obvious that it could lead to political progress.

To reach such a result Israel must accept to resume negotiations and Western governments must put an end to their boycott of Palestinian government. Unfortunately Israel and Washington have already declared that they would refuse any contact with the new government, unless it officially recognises Israel and agrees to past agreements, including the Oslo agreements.

Since March 2006, when Hamas, who won the elections, took responsibility of the new government, the European Union has followed the line defined by Washington - the line being an economic and political boycott of Palestinian government as long as it does not accept three conditions : recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and acceptance of past agreements signed by the Palestinian authority.

Worsening situation

The goal is to compel Hamas to officially recognise Israel or to make it unpopular among the Palestinian people due to the consequences of the sanctions on their daily lives. This strategy has proven to be unsuccessful until now.

For sure, the situation of the Palestinian people has worsened. Peace process is certainly not progressing. It is highly desirable for Hamas to recognise Israel and to change its official position. But could we hope to obtain this result by an admonition from abroad?

The recognition of Israel must be the goal, and not the prerequisite to any contact. Western countries speak rightly of Israeli security but they wrongly never address the case of security for Palestinians. Is this because they do not deserve it? The least that can be said is that Palestinians are living under great insecurity. If violence must be stopped, there should be a demand for it to be stopped by all the parties and not just by the Palestinians.

In the recent months, the Israeli army has not given the impression that it wishes to do so.

Calling for more democracy in the Middle East while refusing to take into account the election results, if considered unsatisfactory for external powers, is as much of an understatement as it is a contradiction.

By definition, democracy is a choice made by a sovereign people and it should therefore not depend on the approbation of foreign countries, and certainly not of a country which militarily occupies another one.

It would have been better for Western countries to think about the roots of Hamas's electoral success than to blame the Palestinian people for it.

Clearly, Fatah corruption was part of this success, and yet the fact that 15 years of negotiations has not led to an improvement of daily Palestinian life is more so a cause of this success.

Since the renewal of the intifada, the revival of the Oslo agreements has been systematically destroyed. Israelis refuse to negotiate with Palestinians, whoever the leader may be. Arafat was presented as a terrorist, Abbas as being too weak and Hamas as a terrorist movement as well.

The EU's boycott is a mistake. It is not logical to request a government to accept all your demands before the beginning of the negotiations, because the goal of negotiations is to reach an agreement!

Does the EU agree on every point with Iran, North Korea, Sudan, etc? Certainly not, however, the EU is not boycotting them! Does the EU think that the Israeli government is taking into account all its demands? I would argue that it does not, but nevertheless the EU has strong links with the Israeli government.

After the formation of a national government, the EU will not be able to wait for a green light from Washington or Tel Aviv to resume contacts with the Palestinian government.

We must predict that Hamas could follow the same path that the PLO did. In order for this to happen, Hamas must be given some incentives and the hope that there is something to win. We could not ask them to give up the military dimension if there is no political perspective.

Dr Pascal Boniface is the founder and director of IRIS (Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques). He has published or edited more than 40 books dealing with international relations, nuclear deterrence and disarmament, European security and French international policy.