Kerry may be ready for his Jim Baker moment
The Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement now allows both parties to say “I told you so” and move into the post-peace process era, with all its consequences.
By the standards of the parallel universe inhabited by Israelis and Palestinians, April 23 was a good day. Everyone now feels vindicated, self-righteous, sanctimonious and in their comfort zone, with leadership and statesmanship reduced to saying "I told you so."
"I told you so," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will say: Hamas will take over the West Bank, the Palestinians don't really want a two-state solution, how can we negotiate? They are deceitful. They want a state without negotiating.
"I told you so," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will say: Netanyahu was never serious, refused to show a map delineating the borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, never stopped building in the settlements. Israel doesn't really want a two-state solution like we do. They are deceitful. They want to negotiate without a state. How can we negotiate this way?
The announcement on April 23 by the Palestinians on signing "a historic" unity deal between Fatah and Hamas — eventually leading to elections in six months — and the predictable ensuing statement by Israel that if this indeed is the case, then "peace negotiations can no longer continue," was a reaffirmation of how far apart the sides are and how far they would go to prove US Secretary of State John Kerry wrong.
