Abbas Declares War With Israel Effectively Over

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By Steven Erlanger

The New York Times
14 February 2005

nytimes.com/2005/02/14/international/middleeast/14abbas.html?Hp&ex=1108443600&en=3314c5810db3294e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

GAZA, Feb. 13 - The new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in
an interview this weekend that the war with the Israelis is
effectively over and that the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon,
is speaking "a different language" to the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon's
commitment to withdraw from Gaza and dismantle all Israeli
settlements there and four in the West Bank, despite "how much
pressure is on him from the Israeli Likud rightists," Mr. Abbas
said, "is a good sign to start with" on the road to real peace.

"And now he has a partner," Mr. Abbas said.

In a 40-minute interview in his Gaza office late on Saturday night,
Mr. Abbas spoke with pride about persuading the radical groups Hamas
and Islamic Jihad to respect the mutual declaration of a truce that
he and Mr. Sharon announced last Tuesday at their first meeting, in
Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, which was the highest-level meeting between
Israelis and Palestinians in four years.

Mr. Abbas said the war with the Israelis would be over "when the
Israelis declare that they will comply with the agreement I made in
Sharm el Sheik, and today our comrades in Hamas and Jihad said they
are committed to the truce, the cooling down of the whole situation,
and I believe we will start a new era."

In the interview with The New York Times, his first with a Western
news organization since he was elected president of the Palestinian
Authority five weeks ago, on Jan. 9, Mr. Abbas spoke with confidence
and humor in nearly fluent English. He also spoke of several
developments.

PHamas made a commitment to him to run in the July elections for the
Palestinian legislature, continuing the group's "conversion into a
political party."

PMr. Abbas fired nine senior police and security officials in Gaza
and was prepared to fire more if they did not get "the first
message" that they are to enforce his cease-fire.

PHe set the release of Palestinian prisoners as his first priority,
and said it would be a measure of how much tensions have eased in
the West Bank and Gaza.

PHe rejected any idea of a sovereign Palestinian state in temporary
borders before a final settlement.

PThe Americans were talking to him "in a very helpful way," and he
hoped the Bush administration would deliver on its promises of
political and economic aid.

PAt nearly 70, he expected to retire after one term of five years.

Mr. Abbas wants progress to continue so that the two sides can move
quickly to political discussions about the road map, a diplomatic
process meant to lead to tackling the most difficult issues that
have deeply stymied both sides: questions of final borders,
refugees, Jerusalem and now, "President Bush's initiative about a
democratic Palestinian state," Mr. Abbas said.

While he is happy to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with
Mr. Sharon, he says, the Palestinians need a political horizon
looking toward a real state. At their meeting in Sharm el Sheik, Mr.
Sharon made many positive commitments, Mr. Abbas said, offering to
form a joint committee to discuss releasing the 200 or so
Palestinian prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo accords, and
the pullback of the Israeli military in the West Bank and the
reopening of Gaza's seaport.

Israel acted further on Sunday to improve relations by agreeing to
release 500 prisoners.

Mr. Sharon also spoke "about the Palestinian independent democratic
state" and "about the occupation, never to be an occupier anymore,"
Mr. Abbas said. "So on all these things he was positive, but what we
want to know is the implementation on the ground."

Asked about his first priority, Mr. Abbas was quick and explicit.
"Prisoners, prisoners are our priority, and we told everyone about
it," he said, from the American secretary of state, Condoleezza
Rice, to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. "The situation will be
stabilized and will cool down in Gaza and the West Bank" to the
degree that Mr. Sharon "helps us to release the prisoners," Mr.
Abbas said. The Palestinian Authority says Israel holds nearly 8,000
Palestinians, but the Israeli government has had fierce debates
about whether to release Palestinians held for attacks against
Israelis, with Mr. Sharon expressing public understanding of Mr.
Abbas's need to show Palestinians quick benefits from the new quiet.

But Mr. Abbas then wants to move quickly to political discussions
with Mr. Sharon about carrying out the road map. He said he would be
happy to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with Mr. Sharon,
but said the Palestinians need a political horizon looking toward a
real state.

Although the road map mentions the option of declaring a sovereign
"Palestinian state within provisional borders" while talks continue
about a final settlement, Mr. Abbas said, "If it is up to me, I will
reject it." Palestinians will see an interim solution as a trap,
replacing a final settlement, and "peace will not prevail anymore in
the region," he said.

"So it's better for us and for the Israelis to go directly to final
status," he said. "I told Mr. Sharon that it's better for both sides
to establish this back channel to deal with final status and go in
parallel with the stages of the road map."

What did Mr. Sharon say, Mr. Abbas was asked. He laughed. "He didn't
respond," he said. "But we'll talk more about it. Maybe he didn't
like it. We have to repeat it more and more in our ongoing
negotiations."

Less than a month after he took office on Jan. 15, Mr. Abbas spoke
with surprising optimism. The Israelis say he started slowly and
timidly, and then has done better, showing more courage when
challenged. Mr. Abbas contends much has been accomplished, given the
deterioration of the Palestinian Authority under Yasir Arafat, "but
we can't negotiate everything in 10 days."

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With his upbeat mood, he may be trying to instill hope in the
Palestinians, who, as he says, "are observing, and they see
progress, and they are happy with it, but they want more."

"They want job creation, they want to eat, and they want security,"
he said.

But Mr. Abbas will undoubtedly face serious challenges from Hamas
and other radicals, whose support may be tactical, and some of whom
want him dead.

Mr. Abbas said he was surprised that the armed militants, many
wanted by Israel, embraced his candidacy. "All the fugitives came to
me from all factions and said: 'We are for you. You were with us,
and we want you to solve our problems,' " he said. They want real
jobs in the security forces of the Palestinian Authority "and to be
secure from Israeli assassination and attacks," he said. "I promised
them, and now it is realized."

Was the armed intifada of the last four and a half years a mistake?
"We cannot say it was a mistake," he said. "But any war will have an
end. And what is the end? To sit around the table and talk. And they
realize that this is the time to come to the table and talk and
negotiate."

Asked if Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are labeled terrorist
organizations by the United States, want what he wants, he laughed
and said: "No, of course they don't want what I want! They want to
come to power if they can. For that they ran in municipal elections
and after that they will go" to the legislative elections. "And if
they win, of course they want power. And it is their right. It is
the competition" of democracy.

Asked about Hamas's recent victories in local elections in 7 of the
10 cities and villages in Gaza, Mr. Abbas said: "This is democracy.
We have to congratulate Hamas and say, 'O.K., you won.' Why not?"
His own mainstream Fatah faction made many mistakes, he said. The
vote "is a good lesson for Fatah to realize its position toward this
and that and prepare themselves for the coming elections" for
Parliament on July 17.

Fatah is already working to renew itself and bring in a younger
generation "in parallel" with preparations for the elections, Mr.
Abbas said, including work to form a new government, expected within
the next week. Some in Fatah worry that Hamas could win more a
substantial share of the vote, and Mr. Abbas is negotiating a new
law with Hamas about how much proportional representation, which
Hamas favors, will be used to elect legislators.

Mr. Abbas argued that democracy would help tame the radicals. "Of
course they should be converted into a political party," he said.
"It's good for us. We're talking about national unity."

He said he was not bothered that Hamas could construe the acceptance
of Israel merely as a stage toward a Palestinian state, to be
followed by a renewed desire to eliminate Israel. "Whether they
consider it a stage or not, they will accept an Israeli state within
the 1967 borders and they declare it," he said. "For me it is not a
stage; for them it is a stage - O.K."

The Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, speaking for the right,
has said that a cease-fire is not enough, and is just a "ticking
bomb" until Mr. Abbas confronts and dismantles Hamas and Islamic
Jihad.

Mr. Abbas rejected the argument, but not entirely, saying: "If he
will put preconditions, it will not work. It will not start. We say,
'We are now in a truce. Let's strengthen it, let us work to
stabilize the whole situation.' Now Hamas and Jihad are running for
the elections, and what does it mean? It means that they will be
converted in time into political parties."

Mr. Abbas, who will be 70 on March 26, is a refugee, and says he
will insist on the right of Palestinian refugees, under United
Nations Resolution 194 of 1948, "to return back or to be
compensated." But he says he is willing to negotiate this, as all
other matters, with the Israelis.

"I don't think the Israelis have the right to say, 'No, we won't
discuss it,' " he said. "We will ask them to discuss this
resolution, and when we come to an agreement, on anything, of course
we will accept it."

Mr. Abbas was born in Safed, in what was then British Mandate
Palestine. He was 13 in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war that
followed Israel's establishment as a state. "I remember everything,"
he said. "It was 1948 when we have been deported from Safed to the
Golan Heights to Damascus, and I remember every specific point," he
said. "There was a war. We had to leave the city. The Israelis
invaded the city, the Haganah at the time. We left our country."

With Safed in Israeli hands, Mr. Abbas said, he could not return
until 1995, after the leaders of the Palestine Liberation
Organization were allowed to return to the territories after the
1993 Oslo accords. He wanted to go sooner, but the mayor of Safed
organized demonstrations against the visit, he said.But in 1995, "I
did go back, but secretly," he said. "The Israeli Ministry of
Interior helped me to go discreetly there." He stopped, his face
suddenly softer. "I was there for 5 or 10 minutes only," he said. "I
was very, very sad. I was very sad."

He looked off toward the far wall, then continued, "Every place,
every quarter, every building I remember. I saw my house. But I
didn't go inside."