When Hamas celebrates the 30th anniversary of its founding in December, it really should invite the Israeli government to take a place of honor in the VIP gallery. No one has contributed more to the creation and growth of that organization than Israel's right-wing government, and it has been doing so from the time the first intifada erupted in December 1987, up until this very day. The motivation remains the same: to weaken Fatah and eat away at popular Palestinian support for reconciliation with Israel based on a two-state solution. Whenever Hamas finds itself in trouble, Israel is there to extricate it. Whenever it seems like the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah has succeeded in resuscitating the Oslo Accord, Israel sends it scurrying back to its place of permanence — to nowhere.

Though Hamas does want to reach a reconciliation agreement with Fatah, this is not the result of some ideological shift within the religious organization. Hamas continues to reject any arrangement that includes recognition of Israeli sovereignty on any territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. The warm reception organized in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 2 for the delegation from the Palestinian Authority (PA) is no evidence of Hamas having accepted Fatah's diplomatic approach to resolving the conflict with Israel either. Israel's longstanding economic blockade on Gaza and the diplomatic blockade of Hamas' financial provider Qatar by Egypt and Saudi Arabia have coalesced to force Hamas into opening the gates of Gaza to its archnemesis. Political and economic distress were also behind Hamas’ decision to accept Egypt’s invitation for continued talks with Fatah. A high-level delegation arrived in Cairo on Oct. 10, in an attempt to resolve the issues still pending ahead of reconciliation between the two movements.

The reason that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to open the gate from the Israeli side of the border and allow the Gaza meeting to take place was a desire to indulge the patron of these reconciliation efforts, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The photo of the PA's leadership sitting together with the leaders of Hamas will serve Netanyahu well on his next visit to Capitol Hill. After all, the United States considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

The experience of the 24 years that have passed since the signing of the Oslo Accord indicates that the Hamas leadership took a very calculated risk when it decided to take a photo with their rivals from Ramallah. They showed magnanimity and a willingness to pay a price for Palestinian unity and to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas knows that Israel will do all the rest. The Netanyahu government will continue to settle Jews on lands that Fatah promised to turn into territory of a free Palestine. Israel will continue to sabotage negotiations over a permanent settlement, clearing Hamas of responsibility for the failure of any potential diplomatic solution. By removing Abbas as an impediment to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in the West Bank, Israel will be removing the risk of peace from reaching Netanyahu's threshold.