Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fateh party held urgent talks Saturday with a breakaway faction of young activists in hopes of reuniting the party and boosting its chances of defeating Hamas in January parliamentary elections. The faction split from Fateh Wednesday and formed the Future movement after Abbas, ignoring the results of party primaries dominated by the young guard, announced a parliamentary slate filled with corruption tainted old-timers. Abbas sent an envoy to Future's leader Marwan Barghouthi to request that the sides merge their party slates, and officials from both groups met Saturday to try to work out a deal, Fateh and Future officials said. Future official Kadoura Fares said the atmosphere was positive and the two sides would meet again Sunday. However, their talks were complicated by a decision announced Saturday by the elections committee forbidding the merger of two party lists. The two sides discussed maintaining the separate lists and merging the two parties after the vote, Fares said. But the continued split could still give Hamas an advantage, since some of the seats are chosen by districts and Fateh and Future candidates could split those votes. The remaining seats are chosen from the national party lists.
Any agreement between the two sides would have to be approved by Barghouthi, who is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk. The Fateh infighting has already given a lift to the Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction and has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis over the past decade. The Islamic group won sweeping victories in key West Bank municipalities during local elections Thursday, the final electoral test before the January 25 parliamentary vote.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Saturday that Abbas should bar Hamas from the election and warned that a victory by the group would set the region back 50 years. "A victory for Hamas would turn the territories into Hamastan and [create] a situation in which none of us want to be," Shalom told Israel Radio. "Today is the time to make the tough decision, the strategic decision, to dismantle the terror infrastructure and go to elections with the intent of afterward going to peace with Israel."