In the spring of 2011, just a day after Hamas and Fatah made one of their announcements that they would be establishing a National Unity government, a senior journalist wrote the following on his Facebook page: “Hamas and Fatah have announced a National Unity government. The right immediately lined up as ‘Against,’ while the left lined up ‘For,’ and both sides are shouting ‘I told you so!’ at each other.” The journalist wondered why no one dared say, “It happened just now. I still have no idea what it means. Ask me in two or three weeks, and maybe I’ll know more, because I’m trying not to respond on auto-pilot.” He signed the piece with the question: “Why aren’t we fed up already with being so predictable?”

The name of that journalist was Yair Lapid, and he is Minister of Finance and a member of the Security Cabinet. On June 2 of this year he raised his hand to vote in support of the Cabinet decision to suspend negotiations with the Palestinians over a permanent arrangement, and he did that just a few hours after the national reconciliation government between Hamas and Fatah was sworn into office. He joined the other ministers who authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) because, in the words of the Cabinet decision, it was, “responsible for all actions that harm the security of Israel which originate in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.” Lapid, the chairman of Yesh Atid, did not appeal the decision, even after it was discovered that the temporary Palestinian government did not include a single member of Hamas, and that its mandate was limited to rehabilitating the Gaza Strip and preparing for elections in the Occupied Territories.

Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni also voted in support of the decision. In 2011, when Livni was chairwoman of the Opposition, she responded to that attempt at Palestinian reconciliation by attacking Netanyahu for failing to make any progress in the diplomatic process. “Recruiting the world’s support does not just mean going from one country to the other to chastise the entire world, saying that the whole world is hypocritical and that there is terrorism,” she castigated Netanyahu. “The question is how to create the hope that Israel would be a genuine partner for frank negotiations to end the conflict. This prime minister is incapable of doing that.”

It was not enough for Livni simply to scold Netanyahu. Between the lines of what she said was a formula that she proposed at the time — and which is still feasible today — to diminish Hamas while leaving the reconciliation government intact. She said that every Palestinian government would have to accept the principles set by the Quartet, and said, “This is the only way to create hope and peace.” Then, as now, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared that the unity government would meet the principles of the Quartet. It would recognize Israel, respect previous agreements, and abandon violence. Today, just as then, he emphasized that the diplomatic negotiations were not being conducted by the government but by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which he heads. Abbas reiterated that he was committed to a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, and to the Arab League’s peace initiative of 2002. At a meeting he held with the head of Hamas' Political Bureau, Khaled Meshaal, during the previous attempt at reconciliation (May 5), the president of the PA made it clear that he would not allow weapons to be brought into the West Bank.