GAZA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hamas movement's takeover of the Gaza Strip from the long-dominant Fatah movement led by moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in mid-June has impelled Israel and Abbas to speed final-status negotiations.
    Speaking to reporters at the end of the U.S.-host Mideast peaceconference in Annapolis on Nov. 27, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that Israeli and Palestinian leaders will formally launch their peace negotiations at a ceremony held at the White House on Nov. 28.
    President George W. Bush has invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas to the White House tomorrow to "inaugurate" the negotiations, said Rice.
    On Nov. 27, Bush opened the Annapolis conference by reading a joint statement, saying the Israeli and Palestinian sides agree "to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008."
    "I believe that now is precisely the right time to begin these negotiations" though the path of the talks will be difficult, Bush said.
    Nearly 50 countries and international organizations attended the Annapolis conference, the first such conference since the Bush administration took office seven years go.
    Speaking at the occasion, both Olmert and Abbas pledged to complete peace negotiations between the two sides in 2008 based on previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements, U.N. Security Council Resolutions, the Roadmap plan and a letter from Bush to the Israeli government.
    Despite harsh criticism from right-wing ministers, Israeli cabinet on Dec. 2 endorsed the understandings reached in the Annapolis peace conference and decided to support the agreements reached regarding final-status negotiations with the Palestinians.
    Earlier on Dec. 1 in Cairo, Abbas revealed that joint committees were agreed at the conference to restart Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on Dec. 12, which would look into all issues including the final status ones including Jerusalem, borders, settlements and refugees.
    He, however, recognized that there is no guarantees for resuming the negotiations, but there are international institutions, world community, Arab and Islamic supports as well as a U.S. serious stance behind the talks.
    In fact, the U.S. has been leading efforts to revive talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority to bolster Abbas after Gaza fell in the grip of Hamas, which is labelled by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist group.
    Hamas, founded on Dec. 15, 1987 by late spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin who was killed in an Israeli air strike in the spring of 2004, took over the Gaza Strip in mid-June 2007 after defeating security forces loyal to President Abbas and his Fatah movement.
    The Gaza takeover, the most significant event of the year that left up to 200 Palestinians dead, mostly fighters from both sides, had happened while Hamas and Fatah were partners in the first ever Hamas-led national unity government formed according to a power-sharing pact reached in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
    Abbas and his Fatah movement strongly condemned the Gaza takeover, terming it a "coup" launched by Hamas.     Israel also did not stand still. Since mid-June, it had dramatically tightened the closure of Gaza. Only a few hundreds of patients and students were allowed out of Gaza before the Israeli measures finished with the announcement of the enclave as a hostile entity in September.
    The new incidents have paralyzed the Palestinian political life, especially in Gaza where Hamas became a de facto government when it rejected Abbas' decision to fire the short-lived unity government.
    Abbas formed a pro-West government, ruling from the West Bank, and banned Hamas from joining the new government though the Islamic movement enjoys the majority parliament.
    Even the parliament did not convene since June despite Hamas' attempts to challenge the Israeli detention of most of its lawmakers. Fatah refused to join the latest parliamentary session citing legal reasons.
    Trying to reinforce its control on the impoverished enclave of 1.5 million, Hamas has formed its own security services after Abbas order his forces not to work in Gaza in order not to help Hamas.
    As Hamas imposed tight control on the security sector, it asserts the pre-takeover phase "will never return." However, ending Gaza "coup" was Abbas' main condition before accepting to resume national dialogue with Hamas.
    The United States and Israel used the situation to seek to reactivate the long-stalled Mideast peace process by raising the olive branch to moderate Abbas and his Fatah movement.     While Israel has tightened closure on the Hamas-controlled Gazaand intensified military operations against militants who have kept launching rockets attacks on Israel, Bush proposed to hold an international conference on Middle East, now known as the Annapolis conference.
    But most of ordinary people in the Hamas-run Gaza believe that any positive result of the conference will only apply in the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip will remain suffering the unprecedented siege.
    Khalil Abu Leila, chief of Hamas' foreign relations, asserts that Hamas will not accept Abbas' conditions to end Gaza crisis and "President Abbas must yield to what was agreed upon in Mecca" and other Hamas-Fatah deals.
    He also mentioned Hamas' current vision: "The patience ... it is part of the solution. We will continue the resistance against the Zionists (Israel) and their tools without stopping."
    But political analyst Naji Shurrab believes that patience is not a word in the dictionary or politics. "Hamas has political, economical and social obligations" that must be provided for the people it rules, he said.
    "First step" should be taken to push the two sides for dialogue, Shurrab said, adding that "the issue is not who should make the concession, the issue is the initiative. Here, the logic says that it is Hamas who should take the initiative." 
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