Hamas - Fatah Reconciliation, A Disastrous Event For Israel and Peace Talks in the Middle East.

Briefly:
I'm neither a fan of an Islamic fundamentalist group such as Hamas, nor a corrupt political group like Fatah. In my opinion, both of these groups cannot provide peace, prosperity and stability neither within Palestine nor in the relationship between Palestine and Israel. The unity between these two groups might ease the tension temporarily within Palestine, but this event could be understood as a huge disaster for Israel as well.
To put its simply, this reconciliation would be a strong nail in the coffin of peace process between Israel and Palestine.

The policy makers in Israel missed a good opportunity during the last three years. One might wonder, which opportunity? Here is the story. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, most of the Arab states in the region including Hamas itself, have begun supporting the Syrian opposition against Assad's Regime i.e. Iran's closest ally in the region. Israel could use this event as a common ground and make a reasonable and peaceful deal with Palestine. As such, Israel would have been able to firstly, isolate the Islamic Regime, Assad's Regime and Hamas to some extent by this move. Secondly, Israel would have been able to improve its relationship with other Arab States in the region to a large extent. If the policy makers in Israel had moved in this way, now Israel would have had only one major problem in the region and that was the Islamic Regime of Iran. To put it simply, Israel would have used its resources in one battlefield with the Islamic Regime, instead of three battlefields with Iran, Hamas, and Palestine (Fatah).

Unfortunately, Israel has not done in this way. Let us see what would happen now.
Hamas and Fatah have united. This means, simply, Israel should use extra resources because its enemies have become stronger. In addition, we should not forget, that Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by some of the Western countries as well. Such a characteristic would make the peace process talks between Israel and Palestine much more difficult than before. Another issue is Hamas's ideological characteristic. The chance that Hamas would change its ideological characteristic is very low or we might say is almost zero. Such a characteristic would undoubtedly influence the domestic and foreign policy of the Palestinian Authority to some extent. Such an event would automatically and negatively impact Israel in different terms. Moreover, we should not forget that in the last couple of months and weeks, the Islamic Regime has profoundly improved its relationship with Hamas. This means, simply, that such a reconciliation would facilitate a good opportunity for the Islamic Regime in both Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In sum, Israel did not make a reasonable and peaceful deal with Palestine during the last three years. Now, Israel should struggle with organized and re-conciliated enemies such as Hamas, Fatah, the Islamic Regime of Iran and Assad's Regime. From this, we can deduce that Iran would gain a lot from this event not only within Palestine against Israel, but also with regard to the current civil war In Syria to some extent. To put it simply, Iran is gradually surrounding Israel from different directions. Therefore, this reconciliation could be understood as a huge disaster for Israel, in my opinion.


M. Sirani                                     23.04.2014