If true, this is a major step forward by the Palestinians:
Palestinian sources told the London-based al-Hayat Thursday that a plan by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to create a unity government with both rival Palestinian factions had already been approved by Fatah, and was currently awaiting the approval of Hamas.
According to the plan, both factions will keep their respective authorities in the West Bank and Gaza, including security forces.
The sources said that the status-quo kept by security forces was based on refraining from using terror as a means of achieving Palestinian aims, meaning Hamas must be committed to maintaining peace on the border between Gaza and Israel.
I dismissed this out of hand at first, but then I got to thinking: Both Hamas and Fatah have already put down demonstrations against them by Palestinians who would emulate the rest of the Arab world. True, the Palestinian leadership is nothing like Ghaddafy, but they repress their people, steal the money intended for them, prevent new elections, and don’t really have democracy. A deal between Hamas and Fatah would stop them from stirring up the population against each other, and also give them one less thing to worry about.
On the Hamas side, with a “calm” in place, they can then start working with the Muslim Brotherhood to fully arm Gaza with all the modern weapons their Iranian patrons will provide. The Egyptian army won’t stop them. Even moderates like Sandmonkey say that the opening of the Egypt/Gaza border is inevitable, and the Israelis will just have to suck it up. (Note that Sandmonkey hasn’t seemed to notice that Gazans are exporting goods to Egypt, and there is no humanitarian crisis, but I digress.)
And the two-step process will then move on to the second step: Hamas plays it cool and lies in wait until the Brotherhood can fully take over Egypt and join in the jihad against Israel. By that time, Iran will have everything in place, and there would probably be a fair amount of terror cells and weaponry smuggled into the West Bank by then.
Of course, this is based on several things. First, Hamas has to actually keep the peace this time. I don’t see that happening. Second, Hamas and Fatah actually have reached an agreement. We’ve heard this all before, and every single time, the agreement has fallen apart. Last, of course, we don’t know which way Egypt is going to jump. These are dark times, there is no denying. But right now, everything is speculation.