Efforts to establish a Palestinian national unity government have come to a standstill, and Fatah officials yesterday accused Hamas of causing the suspension by rescinding its agreement to include the 2002 Arab peace initiative in the unity government’s guidelines.

However, national unity talks are expected to resume when Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – who supports a unity government, in contrast to most other Fatah leaders – returns to the region.

Hamas officials confirmed that the organization wants to change the clause of the agreement that deals with the Arab peace plan. Hamas does not want the government platform to make an explicit reference to the plan.

“You can’t mention the Arab initiative only,” Salah Bardawil, head of Hamas’s parliamentary faction, told Haaretz yesterday. “The prisoners’ document [an earlier proposed blueprint for a unity government] explicitly talks about ‘recognizing the Arab source of authority,’ while the agreement talks only about the Arab peace initiative. It must be changed and the initiative should be noted in a more general manner.”

In a meeting scheduled for today in New York, Abbas will attempt to convince U.S. President George W. Bush that the unity agreement constitutes an indirect recognition of Israel by Hamas, associates of the Palestinian leader said yesterday.

But they said that they did not have high hopes for the meeting. Instead, they expect Bush to announce that the United States will not cooperate with a Palestinian unity government unless it recognizes Israel, gives up terror and accepts previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements – the conditions set forth by the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers, composed of the U.S., the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

Abbas associates said the Palestinian leader plans to tell Bush that Hamas has moved toward the Quartet demands and is ready to open up to the international community. They added that the U.S. must understand that some Hamas officials oppose Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s moderate line and do not want a unity government.

“If, at the end of the day, a unity government does not come to pass, we risk a renewal of fighting between the organizations and with Israel,” an Abbas associate said.

Although the Bush administration is interested in strengthening Abbas, it appears to be waiting to see what happens with the Palestinian government before announcing any new policies regarding the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas says will accept past deals

Another issue that top Fatah officials said was causing the serious crisis in the unity talks is acceptance of previous agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, such as the Oslo Accords. The Fatah officials charged that Hamas is not prepared to recognize those agreements.

But Bardawil said that Hamas is not demanding any changes in this clause of the unity government deal reached between Abbas and Haniyeh. As it stands, the deal states that the unity government will honor agreements signed by the PLO that safeguard Palestinian interests.

Similarly, during a meeting this week, the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzuk, told former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia, who was representing Abbas, that Hamas has a few reservations about the Arab peace plan, but would honor the agreements signed by the PLO.

Nevertheless, Abbas associates are fuming over the change in Hamas’s position on the Arab peace plan, which they said was a result of pressure from Khaled Meshal, the head of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus. Abbas had planned to present Hamas’s agreement to put this plan in the government guidelines as an important achievement.

Fatah officials criticized Hamas leaders in Gaza for giving in to the dictates of Meshal and his cronies, who they said are taking a harder line than Haniyeh. The officials added that the varying Hamas positions are making it difficult for Abbas to get American support for the unity government.

Fatah split, too

But even as Fatah officials criticized the split between the Haniyeh and Meshal camps within Hamas, Fatah itself remained divided over a national unity government.

Palestinian sources said that even two of the officials accompanying Abbas on his trip to New York – Saeb Erekat and Yasser Abed Rabbo – are not enthusiastic about a unity government.

On the other hand, the Abbas associates who argued that the Bush administration should be more positive about a unity government had kind words for Hamas. They said that while Fatah changed its position almost 30 years after it was founded, Hamas took only six months to agree to insert a reference to the 1967 borders.

The Palestinian sources also said that a meeting between Abbas and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni yesterday was positive, but did not yield any results.

PA poll: 67% say no need to recognize Israel

A poll conducted in the territories over the weekend found that 67 percent of Palestinians think that Hamas does not need to recognize the State of Israel, while 30 percent think that it does.

The survey, conducted by pollster Khalil Shikaki’s Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, found that 38 percent of Palestinians would vote for Hamas and 41 percent for Fatah if elections were held now. A survey three months ago found that 39 percent would vote for Hamas and the same amount for Fatah. In addition, 54 percent are not satisfied with the Hamas government, while 43 percent are satisfied. Abbas is doing better than Hamas, with a satisfaction rating of 55 percent.

The findings were based on responses provided by 1,270 Palestinian adults.

Shmuel Rosner contributed to this report from Washington.