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Outside Mediation Fails to Resolve Palestinian Dispute

The direct involvement of Qatar`s foreign minister has failed to bring about a breakthrough in internal Palestinian efforts to forge a unity government between the ruling Hamas terrorist movement and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas` long-standing Fatah faction. On Tuesday, Hamas leaders said they were interested in continuing negotiations, but called the Qatari unity proposal unacceptable because it implied recognition of Israel`s right to exist.

A top aide to Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Abed Rabbo, says that Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani spent hours separately with Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, but by the end of the night "the differences on the core issues remained." Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel, yet has stated its willingness to hold to a long-term cease-fire with the Jewish state, according to Islamic principles that would later allow it to resume it`s campaign of violence directed primarily at civilians.

Hamas`s intransigence over this topic has for months thwarted the formation of a unity government and the lifting of Western economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority following the election of Hamas to a parliamentary majority at the end of January. Those sanctions have left the nearly 165,000 Palestinians employed by the PA without pay for the past six months, and last week the hardship led to armed street clashes between Hamas forces and Fatah-aligned PA policemen.