MERIP Media Resource List, June 13, 2006

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- Inter-Palestinian power struggles
- Israeli plans for the West Bank

MOUIN RABBANI
Mouin Rabbani is senior Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group, specializing on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and a contributing editor of Middle East Report . He has published widely on Palestinian issues and travels to Palestine frequently. The International Crisis Group report, "Palestinians, Israel and the Quartet: Pulling Back from the Brink," was released yesterday. ICG commented today: "On all fronts, the Israeli-Palestinian arena is heading towards a catastrophic breakdown, and all players must urgently rethink their policies. The situation is rapidly deteriorating -- Palestinians are inching towards civil war, Israelis and Palestinians are coming perilously close to resuming all-out hostilities, and the international community continues to deprive the Palestinian Authority of vital assistance. 'Taking the lead in defining the international community's objectives, the US appears intent on ensuring the new government fails', says Mouin Rabbani, Crisis Group's Senior Analyst. 'That's a dangerous path: if Hamas feels cheated of its right to govern, it is unlikely to go quietly'. Missing from all current strategies to dislodge Hamas is a realistic assessment of longer-term consequences."

ROBERT BLECHER
Robert Blecher is an editor of Middle East Report . He has been a consultant with a variety of international organizations in the Middle East, including the International Crisis Group and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He commented today: "Reports that Ehud Olmert will convert his unilateral convergence agenda into a bilateral move in coordination with Mahmoud Abbas may turn out to signal a step in the right direction, but this adjustment does not seem to mark a substantive change in how the Israeli government views the future of the West Bank. Indeed, Israel continues to stress that it will never agree to a full withdrawal from the West Bank, that the separation wall-cum-fence will form the provisional border of a Palestinian state, and that Israel will retain control over the Jordan Valley. The Israeli government is pushing the idea of bilateralism in the wake of Olmert's failure to win enthusiastic international approval for Israeli unilateralism, but lopsided bilateralism should not be mistaken for negotiations. Indeed, 'coordinated unilateralism' is probably a better name for what Olmert has in mind."

Background :

+ International Crisis Group report, "Palestinians, Israel and the Quartet: Pulling Back from the Brink," June 13, 2006

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