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Palestinian Reconciliation: Three Tests

Daoud Kuttab writes that there are three key indicators that will prove whether Hamas and Fatah are serious about reconciliation.
A Fatah supporter flashes a victory sign during a rally celebrating the reconciliation agreement between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, at al-Azhar University in Gaza City May 8, 2011. Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal endorsed on May 4 a deal to end a four-year rift between the secular Fatah group and its Islamist rival. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)

Despite the positive tone of the Abbas-Meshaal meetings in Cairo, it is safe to say that the long-awaited breakthrough in the Hamas-Fatah talks has not yet materialized. Maybe the best evidence for that failure lies in the fact that the two Palestinian leaders were not invited by the Egyptian president for a tripartite meeting.

Observers of the flow of the talks can look for three key areas that reflect whether the talks have produced the desired outcome of full Palestinian unity, and the return of a single governmental/security command structure for both the partially-liberated Gaza and the still-occupied West Bank.

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