The Hebrew-language headline "The Abbas Obstacle" blared on the front page of Israel Hayom, the pro-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu newspaper. The article itself reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was "trying to torpedo" the emerging Israel-Hamas truce agreement on the Gaza Strip. Indeed, Abbas is refusing to go along with what Israel euphemistically dubs the "arrangement" with Hamas. However, contrary to the impression government mouthpieces are trying to make, the Palestinian president is not a pyromaniac. On the contrary.

In his Aug. 18 speech, Abbas declared for the umpteenth time that he would reject any plan not based on the principle of “one state, one government, one law and one weapon” — in other words, his adamant insistence on one unified government for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In a tragic paradox, while Abbas is demanding one sole, united security force and adhering strictly to the security coordination arrangements with Israel in the West Bank, Israel is willing to accept continued terrorism on the part of the Hamas rulers of Gaza. Instead of cheering Abbas for his determined stand vis-a-vis Hamas, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman accused the Palestinian leader of “trying to drag us into a clash with Hamas” so that he can take control of Gaza. Would Liberman rather Hamas exploit its entrenchment in Gaza under Israeli auspices, and of Abbas’ weakness, to take control of the West Bank?

Abbas’ objections to the so-called “arrangement” on Gaza does not reflect any desire to walk away from the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords. At an Aug. 13 meeting with Israeli Arab leaders, he was critical of the Palestinian flags some Israeli Arab activists carried at a recent rally in Tel Aviv against the Nationality Law. As he explained, he was seeking to remove the Israeli flag from the West Bank — not to hang a Palestinian one in the heart of Tel Aviv.

It does not take the head of the Shin Bet security service to understand that negotiations with Hamas, and more so an agreement with the organization, strengthen the ruler of Gaza and hurt its rivals from the pragmatic camp led by Abbas. There is no better proof of this than Israel’s 2005 unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip, which marks its 13th anniversary this week. Israel’s evacuation of its Gaza settlements effectively scuttled the roadmap drawn by the Middle East Quartet — the United States, Russia, the UN and the EU — that set out a timetable and agenda for the evacuation of Israeli settlements and negotiations on ending its 51-year occupation of Palestinian territory. The Israeli pullout played into Hamas' hands and contributed to its election victory a year later and its de facto ousting of the Palestinian Authority from the Strip.