[Ynet] In additional sign of Paleostinian unity, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, officials vacated the Gazoo City villa of Paleostinian President Abbas, which has in recent years been used as a base.Hamas on Wednesday cleared out of the private Gazoo residence of Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
, in the most concrete sign yet that the rivals are moving toward reconciliation.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, took over the residence when it seized Gazoo from the Western-backed Abbas in 2007, leaving him with only parts of the West Bank. Since then, the rivals have become entrenched in their respective territories, setting up separate governments.
Repeated reconciliation efforts have failed, but the current one might have a better chance because both sides seem to have more compelling reasons than in the past to strike a compromise.
On Wednesday, Hamas security forces removed belongings from the Abbas villa in Gazoo City. They loaded mattresses, desks and chairs onto pickup trucks and drove out of the gated compound.
Abbas' villa is located in the western part of the Tel Al-Hawa area of GazCity, considered to be an exclusive neighborhood. Paleostinian sources saidhat the villa will be cleared in a number of hours and will be handed over to a special committee representing Abbas in Gazoo.
| Photos at the link. They keep using the word modest, clearly because they do not understand what it means. |
Iyad Al Bozum, a front man for the Interior Ministry in Gazoo, confirmed that security forces cleared their belongings from the residence, but that a formal handover of the villa requires another government decision.
"Our presence there during the past seven years was to protect the place," he said.
On April 23 the two sides agreed to revive a previous reconciliation deal that was never implemented. Under that deal, Abbas is to form an interim unity government of technocrats by the end of May. The main task of the government is to prepare for general elections by 2015.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has faced growing regional isolation and a crippling financial crisis in recent months, largely a result of an asphyxiating border closure by neighboring Egypt. Abbas, meanwhile, suffered a political setback when the latest nine-month round of peace negotiations with Israel ran aground last month.
The ideological gap between Abbas and Hamas remains wide, and a temporary government of technocrats is meant to paper over those differences.
At the same time, Abbas needs to reassure Western donor countries, which consider Hamas a terror organization, that the Islamic gunnies will not play a role in his new administration. Abbas has said any unity government would recognize Israel, renounce violence and uphold previous interim deals -- positions Hamas rejects.
Gazoo Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
said Wednesday that Hamas is willing to do its part to end the Paleostinian split, but that the movement would not "abandon its fixed political positions." He also said a new government would require the approval of the Paleostinian parliament - elected in 2006 but not functional since the split - where Hamas has a majority.