Fatah/Hamas

"Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel and the international community must not embrace it."
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu

Via Twitter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu connecting arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden to Hamas, which supported his mission. Photo: Screenshot.

Hamas, in the midst of a major financial crisis brought on by the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi's beneficial presence as Egyptian President, funnelling financial support to the terrorist group, is desperate for funding. It was cut off as well by Iran for its resistance to the Syrian regime's cleansing of Sunni Syrians whose rebellion against the Alawite Shia government led to massively brutal attacks against Sunni Syrians. Hamas protested, alienating Iran.

Qatar came in grandly with offers to restore the lost munitions that Hamas suffered when the IDF entered Gaza in response to violent provocations with Grad missiles landing in Israeli border towns. Mohamed Morsi intervened, as president of Egypt, to bring Israel and Hamas to a truce. With the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood, the lifeline has been cut and border crossing closed.

The new government of Egypt accuses Hamas, along with Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood and Bedouin Salafists, joined by al-Qaeda affiliates flooding into the Sinai peninsula to create violent havoc, attacking Egyptian police stations and killing police and bombing Egyptian military presence there.

After a number of failed attempts at reconciliation between Palestinian Authority-headed Fatah in the West Bank and its archrival Hamas in Gaza, the latest reconciliation, spearheaded this time by Qatar which finds itself exceedingly in accord with terror groups no matter where they arise, it seems a 'friendship' may have been sealed to bring together the competing factions.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has announced a new cabinet, incorporating some elements of Hamas into the governing body. A last-minute hitch delayed the announcement, but through it came, finally.

The Israel Project points out that Hamas represents an internationally recognized terrorist organization which the U.S. Congress through its Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, revisited in 2012, prohibits U.S. aid to any Palestinian government "that results from an agreement with Hamas and over which Hamas exercises undue influence."

Under the newly signed unity pact "Hamas will get to keep and independently operate its fighters and its missile arsenal" and at the same time "the terror group will be given renewed access to the West Bank." Seems like Lebanon and Hezollah redux.

The reshuffling of the controversial Prisoners Affairs Ministry whereby EU donated funds are used to pay salaries to prisoners convicted of violence against Israelis is another highlight of the new cabinet. It was that issue that threatened to delay Monday's cabinet announcement.

President Abbas has made a pledge that the new government will consist of apolitical technocrats, accepting international insistence that violence be renounced and Israel's right to exist be recognized. The new government will be headed by the current Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, a British-educated university president.

Israel has stated through its president that it will reject the new unity government. It is, in the final analysis, the reactions of the European Union and the United States, both of which forward hundreds of millions in aid each year to the Palestinians, that will prove critical in determining whether this new cabinet will survive. And whether, in the end, Israel will be urged to deal with it.