by debkaFile
The Netanyahu government had finally begun appreciating that trusting the Egyptians with closed eyes might lead to untoward circumstances and loss of control
Israel
was startled by the Egyptian president’s comment that the Palestinian
reconciliation process he is brokering would lead to peace with Israel.
Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi put it this way in an
interview on Sunday, Oct. 8: “The Egyptian moves aimed at helping the
Palestinian brothers to start a new stage of unity of the Palestinian
ranks would pave the way for a just peace between Palestine and Israel.”
He defined his goal as being: “The establishment of an independent
Palestinian state to meet the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian
people for a secure, stable and prosperous life.”
El-Sisi added no further details, but he said
enough to finally rattle the Netanyahu government. The Palestinian
reconciliation process was clearly intruding on terrain that properly
belonged to negotiations with Israel. Jerusalem’s policy of standing
aside from Cairo’s efforts to broker the internal Palestinian rift
between |Hamas and Fatah had left Israel without a say in the process as
it advanced. It was becoming clear that Cairo was no longer briefing
Israel, despite its promises to do so, on the directions to which
Egyptian intelligence officials were leading the Palestinian
negotiations for burying the hatchet. (On Oct. 3, DEBKAfile warned that
Israel would pay a price for standing aloof from the process.)
The Netanyahu government had finally begun
appreciating that trusting the Egyptians with closed eyes might lead to
untoward circumstances and loss of control. The Trump administration was
therefore asked to find out what was going on. As a result Jason
Greenblatt, the president’s special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process, is due to arrive in Cairo Monday, Oct. 9, to ask the
Egyptians what they are up to.
That is why the round of Cairo talks between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas was put back – albeit by just one day – from Monday to Tuesday.
The Trump administration was also taken by surprise
by the direction indicated in the Sisi interview. His mediation effort
was perceived in Washington as designed to remove the meddling hands of
Iran, Turkey and Qatar from the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian effort was now
revealing a quite different motivation.
Hamas negotiators, too, are preparing to land a
couple of surprises on the next round of talks in Cairo. DEBKAfile has
received exclusive information on this nature of those surprises. They
are clearly ploys to “pave the way for a just peace between Palestine
and Israel,” in keeping with the Egyptian president’s words Sunday,
while at the same time not giving an inch on their interests.
- Hamas will give Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Egyptian mediators a pledge to rescind its claim to representation in the future Palestinian unity government. In the absence of Hamas ministers, Israel will have no grounds for refusing to deal with a Palestinian administration which has no terrorist component.
- Hamas will also promise not to run as a movement against Abbas’ Fatah party in future elections to the presidency and parliament when it is called by the Palestinian Authority. Hamas is offering to establish a new party under a new name – such as the “Palestinian Justice Front” – for its adherents to elect, and assure Abbas and his party of victory in a general election.
By these stratagems, the extremist Hamas movement
places itself on the road to achieving its two main objectives: One is
to hand over full budgetary responsibility for administrating the Gaza
Strip to the Palestinian Authority and Abbas; and other is to preserve
the operational autonomy of its armed wing and arsenal.
debkaFile
Source: https://www.debka.com/israel-asks-us-plumb-real-motive-behind-sisi-sponsored-palestinian-talks/
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