Bethlehem - Ma'an - In the wake of President Mahmoud Abbas' planned retirement from politics, Israeli Knesset Member Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) on Sunday said his government should begin planning for a potential Hamas victory.

"If Hamas is elected and chooses to negotiate – Israel must conduct dialogue with any group that changes its behavior," Mofaz said, in what appeared to be a major departure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of isolating the Islamic movement.

"How can it be that six months have passed since Netanyahu's Bar-Ilan [University] address and there is still no plan in place?" he said at a news conference in Tel Aviv, according to the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "Meanwhile, Hamas continues to prepare for the next round."

Issuing a stern warning in addition to his otherwise unusually conciliatory overtures, Mofaz added, "They must realize that if they plan to continue firing on Israeli communities, their fate will be sealed."

Hamas: We won't help Mofaz polish Israel's image

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Ma'an the proposal was "a malicious Israeli attempt to take advantage of the state of Palestinian disunity, to beautify the occupation, and to exploit opportunities to divide us."

"We don't believe in negotiations with [Israel] - negotiations that would legitimize the occupation of our land and holy places - to clean up its image internationally and cover up its crimes," he said in a phone interview, as talks "would amount to repeating a failed two-decade experiment that has benefited only the occupation."

Barhoum noted that Mofaz' plan came suspiciously in tandem with Abbas' retirement, the timing of which he said was yet another reason to reject the proposal. "The best way we can respond to these proposals is to fortify the home front by finalizing [Hamas-Fatah] conciliation, and recommit ourselves to Palestinian rights, the national project, and resistance."

Mofaz backs Palestinian state with temporary borders

At the same news conference, the former army chief of staff laid out his vision of establishing a Palestinian state - with temporary borders on some 50-60 percent of the occupied territories, excluding Jerusalem - as quickly as a year, "because the relative calm is dangerous, and at its end hides a violent and bloody conflict."

"If [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu won't implement this plan, I will do so when I become prime minister," he said of the plan, which would entail establishing a state on slightly more than half of the West Bank, excluding Jerusalem and mainly in Areas A and B, which are already under limited Palestinian control. Shortly thereafter, negotiations on the core issues could be conducted, he said.

Mofaz noted that his plan would ease concerns with guarantees that the state would not be formed on less than 92 percent of the occupied territories, and that international forces could assist in the handover.

As for the settlements, he said Israel would make territorial exchanges, bringing most inside the country's hypothetical borders, and evacuating only some 65,000 of the estimated 500,000 settlers living on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Fatah 'astonished'

Hamas’ reaction to Mofaz’ proposal was not unified, however. Hamas lawmaker Mushir Al-Masri told the Israeli news website Ynet that the plan represented "a very important step, but we are interested in its translation from talk into action."

"Obviously, such comments carry a lot of weight when they come from someone of Mofaz's stature – a man who went to war against Hamas and the resistance and is familiar with the issue's political and security-related aspects," Al-Masri was quoted as saying.

These comments, in turn, triggered a reaction from Hamas’ rival, Fatah. Party spokesman Ahmad Asaf expressed his astonishment at the hasty welcoming of Mofaz’s call to hold negotiations.

Asaf noted in a statement that Fatah rejected Mofaz’s proposal of a state within temporary borders and others which he said are aimed at destroying national aspirations and violating the Palestinian right to self-determination calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, and which disregard solving the issue of Palestinian refugees in relation to international law.

The spokesman added that, “Fatah is embracing what President Abbas stated in his latest speech in which he stressed that there can be no return to negotiations unless all settlements are stopped and the perquisites for the peace process are installed.”

Asaf further remarked that, “While the Palestinian leadership represented by President Abbas rejected all of the Israeli proposals and pressures that are supported in the region and in the US, we find representatives of Hamas like Mushir Al-Masri rushing off to describe the Mofaz proposal as ‘an important step’ which Hamas will deal with seriously.”

Asaf continued to state that, "These developments that have come about quickly after President Abbas’ speech confirmed what Fatah had warned of: there are Palestinian factions whose interests are the same as the Israelis, intent on weakening the legitimate Palestinian leadership."

PPP: New line of talks in light of failure

An official from the Palestinian People’s Party in Gaza, commented that Israel now appears to be “opening new negotiating tracks after the failure of the bilateral negotiations and the [failure of the] government of the occupation.”

“These statements came after President Abbas' rejection of US pressure that demanded the resumption of negotiations without stopping settlements,” Awad added in a phone interview.

He also noted that, “Israel is exploiting the recent state of division among Palestinians in an attempt to make a breakthrough to complete the elimination of the [Palestinian] cause, to prevent the establishment of an independent state with all of the lands, and resolve the issue of [Palestinian] refugees under international law.”

Awad called on Palestinians to oppose Israel’s strategies and “restore unity among all, including Hamas … through uniting around a single national strategy to block the road in front of the Israeli attempts.”