breakingnewsisrael.com

The whole world wishes it could be true. Hamas renounces violence, recognizes Israel, and agrees to abide by previous international agreements. Hamas begins taking actions to dismantle its military wing and takes apart its systematic propaganda machine in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are able to unite and form one government that truly represents all Palestinians, allowing them to negotiate an end to the conflict with Israel that creates real peace. But unfortunately, none of this is true.

The recent unilateral move on the part of the Palestinian Authority to form a single Palestinian government with Hamas, an organization committed to using violence and terrorism, counteracts any efforts to reach peace. Hamas isn’t only an organization that is bad for Israel and its civilians, their now-increased legitimacy is bad news for Palestinians as well. Hamas is an Islamist organization that just a couple months ago passed new punitive law measures, the new law…

“stipulates a minimum of 20 lashes for a minor offense, with the number of lashes increasing with the seriousness of the offense. A minimum of 80 lashes is to be imposed in criminal cases. The law also widens the use of the death penalty as per Sharia. Articles No 289, and 290 of the proposed law stipulate the cutting off of the hand of a thief and a minimum of seven years in jail in case the criminal repeats his crime.”(gulfnews.com)

Such policy measures are just the tip of the iceberg for Hamas. As the PA has been touting its new unity deal, Hamas has reiterated its commitment to using violence against Israel and has said it will not dismantle its military wing. There is no indication that the Palestinian Authority, whose security forces coordinate with the Israeli Defense Force, will be allowed to enter Gaza and begin serving as police authorities in place of Hamas combatants. This is especially true, considering Hamas imposes an incomparably higher level of Sharia law in Gaza compared to the PA’s enforcement of the Islamic code of law in the West Bank.

Currently, the new unity government plans to have presidential and legislative elections within six months. How will this happen when they haven’t decided on basic issues yet like democratic rights versus Sharia law? How do we know who will be allowed to vote? Or what about the lack of a common ideology regarding their views towards Islamism and the Western World? Their school systems, each organization’s large payrolls, and their security forces–what will become of these in a new unity government? Can the new government promise that Hamas won’t start a rebellion in the case that a two state solution is reached? It seems the only thing they have agreed on so far is whose faces would be shown in the press conference to announce the new deal.

And that’s it. For now, this deal is all publicity. Palestinians living in the West Bank under the PA will continue to live a separate life from Palestinians living in Gaza under the rule of Hamas. The U.S., who has said it will continue giving $500 million in aid to the PA despite the unity deal, will continue to pressure Hamas to denounce violence. Hamas, on the other hand, will continue to teach hatred in their schools, train new combatants to attack Israel, and oppress Palestinians living in Gaza.

There are still many questions to be answered in this new Hamas-PA unity deal. They have agreed in theory, but nothing has yet been put into practice. In the meantime, Israel will continue to have to treat Hamas as the terrorist organization that it is. Israel’s priority must be to protect its citizens and hope that ultimately Palestinian leadership will recognize Israel and seek true, lasting peace. Until then, ordinary Palestinians it seems will continue to be disregarded as mere chess pawns by their own leaders.

Khaled Abu Toameh, Arab-Israeli writer for the Jerusalem Post, writes more here about the obstacles facing this new unity government. http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Analysis-Palestinian-unity-govt-leaves-explosive-issues-hanging-in-the-air-355203

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/01/fatah-hamas-unity-government-netanyahu-terror