In a surprise announcement, officials from West Bank’s Fatah, and Gaza’s Hamas, say they will reconcile and form a new Palestinian government.
Recently Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, lost support after Arab media reports showed that his administration actually worked for Israel.
More recent Arab reports showed that, along with Israel and the United States, the Egyptian government under Hosni Mubarak worked to keep Hamas and Fatah at each others throats.
Now that Mubarak is gone, and because Palestinians have been demonstrating against Fatah, it looks like there could be a unified Palestinian government.
An agreement was signed back in October 2009, but Hamas had concerns, and then Abbas of Fatah (headquartered in West Bank) withheld foreign aid money for Gaza. It’s being reported that Abbas says he will finally release the foreign aid money for Gaza.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening the alliance of Hamas and Fatah, saying: “You can’t have peace with both Israel and Hamas. Choose peace with Israel.”
Netanyahu’s threats will fall on deaf ears, because in the past few weeks Israeli troops have been terrorizing West Bank Palestinians, after a Jewish settler family was found stabbed to death. The amazing thing is that the Israelis have no proof of who did the murders, they just automatically assumed it was the West Bank Palestinians. Why? Because the Israelis admit the land the settlers were on was stolen from local Palestinians and they think the murders were retribution. Aren’t the Israelis wonderful, steal your land, then accuse you of murder without any proof, round up hundreds of men and women, torture them, take blood samples for DNA data banks, then use the whole incident to justify taking more of your land!
Hamas is expecting more action from Fatah, such as a release of hundreds of Hamas prisoners locked up in the West Bank, re-opening closed Hamas charities, and the removal of a ban on Hamas activities in the West Bank.
Considering the damaging reports of Fatah’s complicity with Israeli policies, and to save face with the Palestinian people, and the fact that the Israelis are storming all over Fatah controlled West Bank, Fatah will have to give into Hamas.