You can’t have a viable Palestinian state with the two major Palestinian political factions at each other’s throats. So my initial reaction to this is that it’s good news:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement hammered an historic reconciliation deal with the rival Hamas group on Wednesday, agreeing to form an interim government and fix a date for general election within the year.
The deal, which took many officials by surprise, was thrashed out in Egypt and followed a series of secret meetings.
[…]
Restoring Palestinian unity is seen as crucial to reviving any prospect for a Palestinian state based on peaceful co-existence alongside Israel. Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian movement until a 2006 election victory by Hamas, backs negotiated peace but the Islamists reject it.
There is a great deal more detail in the article, which I urge you to read. I’ll just quote Israel’s official reaction, which I find very interesting:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that reconciliation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas could spell the end of the peace process. “You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas,” Netanyahu said, in remarks directed at Abbas. “Choose peace with Israel.”
I will let readers draw their own conclusions from this response as to why Netanyahu is so displeased by this move.
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.