Negotiating peace once more

Dubai: Israel's elections will likely set ceasefire negotiations with Hamas back to the beginning point, Nathan Brown, a non-resident senior associate of Carnegie Endownment for International Peace based in Washington, DC, told Gulf News.

"[Likud party leader Benjamin] Netanyahu says he wants to oust Hamas from Gaza. Of course, Labour and Kadima said the same thing, but both realised that such a task would be difficult to accomplish by military means. Although, if Netanyahu secures the premiership, it is not impossible there would be another war," Brown said.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) said yesterday the next Israeli government should meet international obligations to continue with peace talks.

"Regardless of the form of government that will emerge& we have the same expectations," Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad said.

"Steps have to be taken to end the occupation that began in 1967. This should mean immediate implementation of key provisions and obligations that the government of Israel had assumed previously," Fayyad said.

He listed these as a freeze on Jewish colony in all territories Israel occupied in 1967, a redeployment to positions before the Palestinian uprising launched in 2000 and lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

While both Hamas and Fatah have signaled indifference towards any emerging Israeli leadership, Fatah has more pinned on the end results of the next few weeks, Brown explained.

"Both say that they do not care who is the leader, but at the same time, both pro-Hamas and pro-Fatah newspapers put the election on their front pages. So, they do care - Fatah more than Hamas, because Fatah still hopes to revive the peace process," he said.

The PA, led by Mahmoud Abbas has support from the Obama administration and the international community for a resumption of peace talks aimed at an independent Palestinian state.But Netanyahu's Likud and other right-wing Israeli parties reject out of hand most of the Palestinian demands.

The Palestinian position is complicated by a sharp divide between by Abbas's Fatah faction and the Islamist group Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

Israel launched a 22-day assault on Gaza on December 27, which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead. But Hamas remains in control and talks have not yet begun on forming a Palestinian unity government, a possible precursor to any resumption of peace talks with Israel.

Hamas is engaged in separate talks with Israel through Egyptian mediators on a durable ceasefire, releasing prisoners and lifting the blockade of the coastal territory.

It said the group's demands would remain the same whoever forms the next government of Israeli, but noted the shift to the right as a sign that peace was not about to break out.

"The election results show the Zionists are leaning towards more extremism, crime and terrorism against the Palestinian people and they do not know the language of peace," said Hamas official in Gaza Mushir Al Masri.

"That requires our people and our factions of resistance to unite and to stick to the choice of resistance and jihad, the only choice capable of putting an end to Zionist extremism.".

- With additional inputs from agencies