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The Palestinian Unity Charade

(Israel Hayom) Efraim Inbar - The new Palestinian unity government is not about the re-establishment of one Palestinian political entity that could develop into a functioning Palestinian state. Already in the early 2000s, the Palestinian Authority degenerated into a failed state as it lost a monopoly over the use of power in the territory under its jurisdiction with the advent of several competing militias. The only true test for unity of a political entity is a monopoly over the use of force. As long as the military branch of Hamas remains independent there is no unity, but just evidence of the Somalization of Palestinian politics. Moreover, instead of the PA regaining lost Gaza, Hamas is gaining better access to the West Bank. The extremist Hamas ideology demands building Islamist political structures and keeping alive the military and theological struggle against the unacceptable Jewish state. Hamas made it loud and clear that it has not mellowed a bit on that issue. The bitter truth that Westerners prefer to ignore is that many Palestinians like Hamas. Palestinian society, under the spell of a nationalist and Islamic ethos, is simply unable to bring itself to a historic compromise with the Zionist movement that would end the conflict. Palestinian rejectionism has won the day. The writer is director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and a political studies professor at Bar-Ilan University.
2014-06-06 00:00:00
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