Hamas to Join the PLO

Reports out of the Middle East are saying that Hamas is joining into the Palestine Liberation Organization. According to Haaretz (reporting on an AP story):

Hamas' leader Khaled Meshal on Thursday joined a committee that will prepare for elections to the PLO leadership, according to AP.

Those elections are likely years away but Meshal's move means he will work with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the rival Fatah party.

The PLO is the umbrella group of the Palestinian independence movement. Should Hamas join the PLO, it would have to accept all of the PLO’s commitments, including those toward Israel.

Maan News is also discussing this:

The report comes as President Mahmoud Abbas met Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Cairo to put "final touches" on an agreement to reconcile the leaders' rival factions.

Fatah leader in Gaza Yahiya Rabbah said the meeting was intended to agree on a final arrangement before the outcome was announced officially later Thursday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Wednesday that Palestinian factions have reached agreement on several steps to be taken as part of ongoing reconciliation talks.

A committee composed of nine members has been formed to take charge of elections. The names will be reviewed by Abbas, who will issue a decree to form a new elections committee.

Now of course with Hamas' inclusion into the PLO, how will the Palestinian Polity regard any steps towards peace. The P.L.O. recognized Israel when Yasser Arafat renounced the original charter in 1993, however, while Hamas has hinted at recognition in the past as part of a thinly disguised publicity ploy to convince Westerners it has since pulled even that hint back stating just recently (on 12/15/11):

Resistance is the way and it is the strategic choice to liberate Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea and to remove the invaders from the blessed land of Palestine," Haniyeh told the crowd, which chanted: "We will never recognize Israel."

"Hamas, together with other stubborn resistance factions, will lead the people towards uprising after uprising until all of Palestine is liberated," Haniyeh said, referring to territory that includes the occupied West Bank and what is now Israel.

Of course, Israel has rejected all peace talks with the Palestinians as long as Hamas is part of the Palestinian Government.

In their statements of December 15th Hamas of course seems to be tracking back to the Charter which calls for the elimination of the Jewish people in Article 7:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews."

and trades in anti-Semitic tropes and memes including asserting that the anti-Semitic forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are actually true in Article 32:

"Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."

So, how will the two sides reconcile this? Here is my take:

The PLO will see no inconsistency in allowing Hamas to continue their rejectionist ways, citing that though they recognize Israel they also call for complete and total Right of Return as defined by the U.N. which will cause a demographic shift in the populace and end up creating One Palestinian State from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. This will then allow Hamas to maintain it's credibility as a rejectionist party that did not compromise on it's ideals at the same time it will give them diplomatic cover for gullible activists and Western nations questioning their Middle Eastern support of Israel.

One thing this will also do is lock down support for a nationalist foreign policy. I cannot see Israel compromising in the face of a PLO that is hand in hand with Hamas and until Hamas rejects it's charter, I can't see why they should. Does that mean I support the continuance of the Occupation? Absolutely not. I think it makes ending the Occupation even more imperitive. I think it just means that the Israelis end it on their terms, and their terms alone.

The Palestinians by bringing in an unrepentant Hamas as an equal partner in their government, a Hamas who as late as last week vowed non-recognition of Israel AND  who promised "total liberation" of the land between the Jordan and Med. have made their position clear as a bell. That they will currently not recognize Israel as the National Homeland and State of the Jewish People, and that in doing so are not partners for peace.

One note... I think the timing here is interesting as well. Currently with the Assad regime facing revolution and the possibility of a fall, Hamas is losing a major patronm, even now Khalid Meshaal and the Syrian Regime are arguing with each other. Hamas might look to Egypt under the leadership of the Brotherhood and the Salafists (although they are not that kindly disposed to Hamas) as more of a patron. By folding into the PLO they could make up for the fall off in support from Damascus with support from a new regime in Cairo.

Now some may say that by folding into the PLO that will moderate their stance. My feeling is that this is simply wishful thinking. One thing about Hamas is that they don't like compromise. They see it as weakness. At the same time Hamas has talked with Israel before and the two governments have had unofficial meetings. To take a nuanced view one could and rightly argue that Hamas could be dealt with on a short term basis. Israeli deals with Hamas have shown that to be true. At the same time, I think those agreements are only short term and in the long run Hamas has done nothing to show anything that would lead one to believe they would agree to or support a permanent agreement.

Please discuss.