What Prospect for Reconciliation?

Alastair Crooke

Article posted on english.aljazeera.net

Enmity towards Hamas has been so systemized that it would require dismantling everything built by Abbas and the US.

Many may still ask about the prospects for national reconciliation; the publication of The Palestine Papers, however, starkly illuminates how this has become plainly impossible.

The Palestine Papers show that – for the leadership in Ramallah, at least – simply there is no going back. This is no ‘family quarrel’ which a few well-chosen, soothing words will wipe away. Mahmoud Abbas changed sides, and identified himself unreservedly with Israel in a ‘full-spectrum’ war against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Abbas’ changed allegiance is reflected in the exchange between Abbas and prime minister Ariel Sharon at the latter’s Jerusalem residence in June 2005.



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