Hamas-Fatah Unity: Good? Bad? Game Changer?

Hamas-Fatah Unity: Good? Bad? Game Changer?

Our colleague Hillel Schenker has sent us a link to the YouTube video of the event held at the Church Center opposite the UN on April 8th on “Palestinians, Israelis and the Kerry Initiative, sponsored by the Israel-Palestine NGO Working Group and the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security:  IPWG –The Kerry Initiative for a Two State Solution

In the meantime, the world is just beginning to absorb the potentially game-changing news on the latest effort at Hamas-Fatah unity.  This NY Times news article, “Palestinian Rivals Announce Unity Pact, Drawing U.S. and Israeli Rebuke,” surveys initial reactions in the U.S. and Israel — mostly negative — but concludes with a quote that raises a critical question:

Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the implications depended on the precise terms of the reconciliation, which have yet to be revealed.
“If, and it is a big ‘if,’ Hamas comes under the P.L.O. umbrella in such a way that it accedes to the P.L.O.’s recognition of Israel and the P.L.O.’s signed agreements with Israel,” she said, “that would be historic.”
“What would make it horrible is if Hamas were to join the P.L.O. without those kinds of commitments,” Ms. Wittes added. “Then it calls into question the P.L.O.’s commitments that it has already made.”

By | 2014-04-24T11:20:00-04:00 April 24th, 2014|Blog|0 Comments

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