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Arab Summit

Israel's Neighbors Move to Freeze Out Hamas

The sudden hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians will take another step forward on Monday, when a summit hosted by Egypt brings Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the negotiating table with their Arab neighbors. Egypt, in particular, is afraid of a radical Hamas enclave on its doorstep.

Egypt and Jordan are looking forward to a summit on Monday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik with Israeli leaders and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas -- but excluding leaders of Hamas -- to discuss the future of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.

"The most important thing to realize is that time is of the essence," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who added that President Abbas would formally ask for a resumption of peace talks with Israel. "We need to deliver the end of occupation, a Palestinian state. If we don't have hope, Hamas will export despair to the people."

The summit will include Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. It deliberately freezes out the leaders of Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in a street war against gunmen loyal to Abbas' Fatah party last week. Abbas has dismissed Hamas members of the Palestinian government and installed an emergency cabinet of his own to consolidate Fatah's control of the West Bank. All the regional leaders attending the summit on Monday consider his hastily-assembled new cabinet the legitimate Palestinian government -- in fact no nation in the world has yet recognized Hamas' legitimacy in Gaza.

A threat to Egypt

Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, was founded in the 1980s by members of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood, a radical group that plagues President Mubarak in Egypt. Since a patch of land fully under fundamentalist control on the Egyptian border could become a stronghold for radical Islam, Cairo considers the Gaza takeover a direct threat to its security. The Monday summit will be as much about controlling fundamentalists in Egypt as it is about a peace deal with Israel. "It's not in Egypt's interests (to permit) the presence of a religious state on its borders, and it will do its best to end such a presence," said Ali Eldin Helal, a leading Egyptian lawmaker, according to the Associated Press.

One day after the summit in Sharm el-Sheik, Mubarak will meet with Saudi King Abdullah. Since the Saudi leadership has also expressed support for Abbas' new government -- as well as concern over the spread of Iran's influence in the Middle East -- the summit can also be seen as a closing of ranks against Hamas and its Iranian financiers. Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit has blamed Iran for "encouraging" the Gaza takeover, and Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar told SPIEGEL ONLINE that his party would just find foreign sources of income if it was cut off by Fatah.

Also on Tuesday, representatives from the Mideast Quartet -- a group including the US, the UN, the EU and Russia -- will meet in Jerusalem, their first meeting since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.

A close shave in the polls for Abbas

Hamas leaders, meanwhile, don't recognize Abbas at all, and insist that they still represent the Palestinian people. Abbas has considered calling a snap popular election to legitimize the emergency cabinet, but Hamas has warned against such a move.

"I think they (Abbas and his advisers) must learn from the Gaza lesson," said Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri, according to AP. "They didn't catch (in time) what happened in Gaza, and they must be awake before paying a high price elsewhere due to their policies."

A poll published Thursday by the independent Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research said three-fourths of all Palestinians favored early elections. But the poll also suggested that Abbas enjoys only a slim lead in popular approval over deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh -- 49 to 42 percent, with a 3 percent margin of error.

msm/ap