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2017-07-24 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Ex-Gaza strongman says Hamas deal will open border
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 [IsraelTimes] Former Fatah leader Mohammad Dahlan also says UAE set to build new $100 million power plant for Paleostinian coastal enclave.
| How will the Palestinians manage to miss the opportunity this time? |
An exiled Paleostinian politician who quietly negotiated a power-sharing deal for Gazoo with former arch foe Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", discussed the details for the first time in an interview, saying he expects it to lead to a swift opening of the blockaded territory’s border with Egypt and an easing of crippling power outages.
The Egypt-Gazoo border crossing is expected to open by late August and funding has been secured for a $100 million power plant, Mohammad Dahlan, a former Gazoo security chief, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named in a phone interview from the United Arab Emirates.
Continued from Page 2
Dahlan said his chemistry with Gazoo’s newly elected Hamas chief, Yehiyeh Sinwar, helped forge the once unthinkable alliance. The two grew up in the tough streets of southern Gazoo’s Khan Younis refugee camp before joining rival camps, the Hamas terror group and the nominally secular Fatah movement, respectively.
"We both realized it’s time to find a way out" for Gazoo, Dahlan, 55, said in an hour-long conversation Saturday. He said both sides had learned lessons from the destructive rivalries of the past.
The deal, backed by Egypt and the UAE, is still in the early stages of implementation. There are no guarantees of success, but all involved seem to benefit.
| And so they will, until the hudna Hamas is required to keep in its back pocket kicks in without warning. |
It enables Egypt to contain Hamas, the forces of Evil on its doorstep, through new security arrangements. Dahlan has a chance to return to Paleostinian politics. And cash-strapped Hamas can prolong its rule through the promised border opening.
If it goes ahead, the deal could deliver a crushing blow to Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
, who presides over autonomous enclaves in the West Bank.
Abbas has a toxic relationship with Hamas, which seized Gazoo from him in 2007, and with Dahlan, a former top aide he sent packing in 2010. A Hamas-Dahlan alliance would further sideline the 82-year-old Western-backed Abbas and undercut his claim that he represents all Paleostinians.
The objectives of the Dahlan-Hamas deal -- ending the border blockade, reviving Gazoo’s battered economy -- could also weaken Paleostinian statehood aspirations by creating a "mini-state" in Gazoo.
For more than two decades, Paleostinian leaders, including Abbas, have unsuccessfully sought to establish a state in the West Bank, Gazoo and East Jerusalem in negotiations with Israel. Israel, which captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war, withdrew from Gazoo in 2005, but still controls most of the West Bank. The territories sit on opposite sides of Israel which has deepened the geographic separation with strict travel bans.
Dahlan dismissed concerns that his deal with Hamas will gradually turn Gazoo into a separate entity.
"We are patriots, not separatists," he said, adding that he would do everything in his power to prevent a further drifting apart of Gazoo and the West Bank.
The multi-millionaire with far-flung business interests in the region and close ties to leaders of Egypt and the UAE said he no longer aspires to replace Abbas.
"I have no ambitions to be president," he said. "Maybe that was the case when I was younger, but now I see the situation. ... Seventy percent of the land is in the hands of the Israelis, and they have no intentions to give us a state."
Dahlan said the new deal is meant to revive Paleostinian political institutions that have been paralyzed since the 2007 split between Hamas and Fatah. This would include a new attempt to form a national unity government and revive parliament. Dahlan said Abbas is welcome to lead such efforts, but that "we are not going to wait for him forever" to make a move.
Previous Abbas-led efforts to form a unity government with Hamas backing have failed over the years, with both sides ultimately refusing to give up power in their respective territories. In recent weeks, Abbas took a different approach, stepping up financial pressure on Gazoo to force Hamas to cede ground there.
Azzam al-Ahmed, an Abbas aide who negotiated with Hamas in the past, said Sunday that the Dahlan-Hamas understandings "are going nowhere."
He said Abbas’ Paleostinian Authority supports Gazoo with $1.2 billion every year, covering wages of ex-loyalists, social welfare payments and electricity. He suggested Dahlan and Hamas would be unable to cover such sums. al-Ahmed also said Egypt assured Abbas "that they are not going to help any new entity in Gazoo."
However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
the lengthy negotiations between Dahlan’s representatives and a Hamas team in Cairo last month would not have been possible without Egypt’s blessing, participants said.
Dahlan said meeting the needs of Gazoo, a crowded sliver of land on the Mediterranean with two million inhabitants, presents huge challenges. He said he has raised funds to refurbish Gazoo’s gate to the world, the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and that he received Egyptian assurances that the crossing will open by the end of August.
"Everyone who needs to travel will be able to travel," he said.
Over the past decade, Rafah only opened sporadically because of the blockade, and thousands of Gazooks are currently on waiting lists, hoping to travel abroad for study, work or medical care.
The UAE has promised $100 million for a power plant that would be built on the Egyptian side of the border, Dahlan said. Once the exact location is chosen, construction would take 18 months, he said.
Egypt could certainly use another power plant, especially one financed by others, and this way they will have another lash to control and punish Hamas when needed. |
In recent years, Gazooks have endured blockade-linked rolling power cuts, most recently lasting as long as 20 hours a day. Egypt has been sending fuel to Gazoo’s existing power plant in recent weeks, as part of the understandings.
Hamas officials describing the deal have said their group will remain in charge of security in Gazoo.
| An interesting assumption... |
Dahlan is to raise money and advocate for Gazoo abroad. He hasn’t been back to Gazoo since the Hamas takeover in 2007.
In the months preceding the takeover, he had led Fatah forces in Gazoo street battles with Hamas. Grievances of the families of people from both sides killed in the fighting -- about 700, according to Dahlan -- still haven’t been addressed. Disbursements to the families from a multi-million-dollar UAE-backed compensation fund are to begin soon, in an attempt to buy calm that is in line with tribal traditions.
Several dozen of Dahlan’s lieutenants and key supporters are expected to return from exile as part of the arrangements. Dahlan said he will remain in exile.
"It’s better for Gazoo that I stay in the diaspora and approach everyone who can extend a helping hand to Gazoo," he said. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2017-07-24 00:00||
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2017-07-24 09:01||
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