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Why Palestinian Unity Is a Pipe Dream

(Bloomberg) Hussein Ibish - Fatah and Hamas, the dominant parties in the West Bank and Gaza, respectively, say they have agreed to hold a general election, the first in 15 years, to allow them to form a united front in opposition to Israel. There is virtually no chance it will actually happen. Over the past decade, each has become well-entrenched in its own fiefdom, where it rules and consumes resources without effective opposition. Obviously, national reconciliation is essential to Palestinian interests. But it's not possible to fit the square peg of Fatah's secular-nationalist goal of a two-state agreement with Israel into the round hole of Hamas' Islamist rhetoric of armed struggle until complete victory. There is a long history of bad blood - and actual bloodshed - between them. The writer is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
2020-10-01 00:00:00
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