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.

The most important demonstration of genuine reconciliation has to be the approval of a mechanism to end the two-headed monster represented by a Ramallah-based government and prime minister (Salam Fayyad) and the Gaza government and prime minister (Ismail Haniyeh). 

The agreed-upon mechanism to end this dual governmental structure is to hold the overdue presidential and parliamentary elections in both Gaza and the West Bank. The West Bank held municipal elections last November, but the government in Gaza objected to any elections until all issues were resolved.