(Nov. 12, 2018 / Gatestone Institute)
- To date, Hamas and Fatah have not been able to agree on the interpretation of the “reconciliation” agreements already signed. Fatah claims that the agreements are supposed to allow its Ramallah-based government to assume full responsibility over the Gaza Strip. Hamas, for its part, remains vehemently opposed to relinquishing security control over the Gaza Strip.
- Abbas’s official news agency, Wafa, issued a strongly worded statement accusing Hamas of being part of a “Zionist-American conspiracy” to detach the West Bank from the Gaza Strip. According to the statement, Hamas is now cooperating with the United States and Israel to establish a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. “There will be no Palestinian state without the Gaza Strip, and there will be no [separate Palestinian] state in the Gaza Strip,” the statement quoted Abbas as saying.
- Abbas can continue to present himself to the world as the “president of the State of Palestine” as much as he wants. He is only living in an illusion: It is obvious by now that he does not represent the 2o million Palestinians who are living in a separate Hamas-controlled entity in the Gaza Strip. Abbas has not been able to set foot in the Gaza Strip for the past 11 years, and his chances of ever returning there now seem to be zero.
- Read the full article at Gatestone.
