Hamas vows full truce if Israel helps end boycott of PA
By Avi Issacharoff and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents and Reuters - 07/03/2007

Israel responded cautiously Wednesday to a Palestinian offer for a complete cease-fire if Jerusalem supports an end to the international aid boycott imposed on the Palestinians following Hamas` victory in the January 2006 parliamentary elections.

A senior Hamas official told Haaretz on Tuesday that if Israel agrees to persuade the international community not to boycott the new Palestinian unity government, the Palestinians "will offer a promise from Hamas and Fatah of a total cease-fire with Israel, including a complete halt to Qassam [rocket] fire and suicide bombings."

But said Prime Ehud Olmert`s spokeswoman Miri Eisen, "We need to see that you can actually implement the ceasefire [in Gaza] before we can consider an extension."

Eisen said Israel has not responded to repeated Qassam rocket fire on southern Israel since the cease-fire in Gaza took effect.

"It`s about time Palestinians deliver on a promise instead of just Israel delivering on ours."

But a senior leader of Islamic Jihad, a group that carried out a suicide bombing in Israel in January and did not sign a Gaza truce in November, said it opposed the idea raised in negotiations on finalizing a unity government.

"We cannot talk about calm while the Zionist aggression is continuing against our Palestinian people in the West Bank and the escalation against Islamic Jihad members and leaders," the leader, Khaled al-Batsh, said.

Israel has killed three Islamic Jihad militants in raids in the occupied West Bank since a Jan. 29 suicide attack in the Red Sea resort of Eilat killed three Israelis.

Batsh said his group was planning attacks to avenge the deaths of its men.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to deliver this offer at his upcoming meeting with Olmert, Palestinian sources said. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, thought according to the Palestinians, the date has not yet been finalized.

However, the Hamas official warned, if Israel presses for a continuation of the international boycott and refuses to work with the unity government, the existing partial cease-fire will be in danger.

Olmert, however, plans to use the meeting to urge Abbas to ensure that the new government, which is currently being formed, accepts the Quartet`s conditions: recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and honoring previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

"This will not be a scolding conversation," said a government source, "but a heart-to-heart talk in which Olmert will try to exploit the grace period that remains before the new PA government is established."

Israel is also working to persuade the European Union - one of the Quartet`s four members, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations - to continue the boycott should the unity government not meet these three conditions, laid down by the Quartet last year.

Olmert has no plans to announce any additional steps to ease Palestinian life at his meeting with Abbas. This will be their third meeting over the last three months.

The Palestinians said the unity government was unlikely to be finalized until after the Olmert-Abbas meeting. As of Tuesday, Hamas and Fatah were still arguing over who the interior minister should be.

Should the unity government not accept the Quartet`s conditions, Israel also plans to boycott ministers from Abbas` Fatah Party. In Europe, however, there is growing support for dialogue with "moderate ministers."

One reason for this is the change in Abbas` position. When Hamas comprised the entire government, he supported the boycott. But now that a unity government is being formed, he wants the Europeans to work with Fatah government members, arguing that this will strengthen Fatah`s position in its ongoing debate with Hamas over diplomatic policy.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who returned Tuesday from a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said that thus far, the EU appears to be standing firm on the Quartet conditions, as evidenced by its rejection of an Italian-Spanish-French proposal to set up a special committee to reconsider the conditions for dialogue with the new unity government. However, fearing this position might erode, she devoted much of her visit to urging her counterparts to stand firm on this issue, arguing that insisting on the Quartet conditions would strengthen Palestinian moderates, whereas "compromising at this time would strengthen Hamas."

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D`Alema, one of the leaders of the anti-boycott camp, opined recently that the EU should not insist that the new government recognize Israel. Instead, it should say that abiding by the other two conditions would be sufficient, in order to encourage Hamas to be more flexible rather than trying to pressure it, he argued.

The EU`s external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, harshly criticized Israel at a meeting with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu last week: "You`re not giving the Palestinians anything - neither territory nor hope," she said. But Israeli government sources claimed that she took a more moderate tone in meetings with other Israeli officials and refrained from criticism.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Tuesday with Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas` political bureau, and urged the Palestinians to continue the armed struggle against Israel, "which is undergoing the worst period of its existence, and getting worse." Iran also pledged financial aid to the new PA government.