Four months after the June swearing-in ceremony, Israel has backed off its militant pronouncements and is cooperating with the Palestinian unity government. Israel, which spoke with such decisiveness before Operation Protective Edge, has been forced to change its stance, and cooperation with the Fatah-Hamas government is now a concrete fact.
By way of a reminder, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas surprised everyone by declaring a unity government with Hamas in April of 2014, Israel was quick to react with harsh condemnation. At an urgent Cabinet consultation convened at the time by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some of the ministers demanded that Israel impose severe sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA); but fearing an additional confrontation with the Barack Obama administration, which recognized Abbas' new government, Israel made do with threatening to impose sanctions. Israel did not even freeze the tax revenues it collects for the PA, as it does each time it thinks the Palestinians are going in an unacceptable direction.
