Earlier Hamas’s strong opposition to Fatah’s proposed candidate, Palestinian Authority’s Salam Fayyad, led the reconciliation initiative to lapse into a stalemate. With unity talks again held in Qatar recently, both PA president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal have moved beyond that position. This is positive for the Palestinians who are fed up with the rivalry and infighting between their two main representative groups. But how this bodes for United States and Israel is yet to be seen. Even last year’s reconciliation agreement had elicited sharp criticism from Washington that to date calls Hamas a terrorist organisation. Tel Aviv, on the other hand had refused to hold any talks with any Palestinian government that included Hamas. Any chance of dialogue with both groups onboard could only happen, in Israel’s view, if Hamas renounced all violent acts against the Jewish state and committed to laying down arms etc among other conditions. In any case the talks between the Palestinians and Israelis seem doomed. Even the recent dialogue between Palestinian officials and the Israelis in Jordan inevitably ran into a stonewall as the core issues of settlements, borders and division of East Jerusalem cropped up. Even if one were to overlook these at this juncture and continue talks, Israel is bound to use the inclusion of Hamas as pivotal contention in dealing with any Palestinian unity government pre elections or afterwards. This is something Israel needs to deal with since the future of peace talks and the inevitable carving out of a Palestinian state is not possible without Hamas. It is now time to shed past grievances and hold dialogue with sincerity in order to achieve a lasting solution. Moreover, the key issues of borders, settlements and refugee repatriation cannot be brushed under the carpet or used as an excuse to stall talks any longer. Israel must understand that the Arab Spring raging in its neighbourhood could well start a more tumultuous movement in its vicinity if the Palestinians are continued to be denied their rights
—Khaleej Times