Somehow, China managed to host talks where all the various Palestinian factions agreed to let the PLO run things for all of them. Middle Eastern politics is a little tricky for westerners to follow but the big deal here is that Hamas terrorists apparently agreed to take orders from their traditional enemy. Fatah controls the Palestine Liberation Organization. Officially, the deal’s being struck in the name of “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity.” It’s really a way for the Pooh Bear to get friendly with those particular Arabs. We’re backing the Palestinians’ biggest problem, Israel.
PLO in charge of everything
China just brokered a major diplomatic arrangement, putting PLO in charge of anything related to Palestine. On Tuesday, July 23, they announced “factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah have signed an agreement.” One calculated to end “division and strengthening Palestinian unity.” The Pooh Bear invited all 14 Palestinian factions for “reconciliation talks” in Beijing.
The thing on everyone’s mind is the war Israel is waging against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi led the Chinese effort to “present itself as a potential peace broker in the conflict.”
Wang began his speech by declaring the agreement was “dedicated to the great reconciliation and unity of all 14 factions.” That means including Hamas. “The core outcome is that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people,” Wang explains.
The Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a declaration in Beijing on ending the schism and strengthening Palestinian unity, reports.
🇨🇳 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the signing ceremony. pic.twitter.com/J44Gm9TOLv— S p r i n t e r (@SprinterFamily) July 23, 2024
Not only that, “an agreement has been reached on post-Gaza war governance and the establishment of a provisional national reconciliation government.” While that sounds like an astonishing feat, the experts say there’s a huge chance it’s not going to stick.
For now, everyone’s playing it cagey as to “what role Hamas, which is not part of the PLO, would play in such an arrangement.” That’s a significant issue. Outside observers believe that the only reason Hamas is agreeing to the deal is because they’ve been virtually wiped out by the IDF in recent weeks.
“The talks were held as the future governance of Palestinian territories remains in question following Israel’s repeated vow to eradicate Hamas in response to the group’s October 7 terrorist attack on its territory.”
A coalition of parties
Back in 1993, the Palestine Liberation Army signed a peace treaty with Israel and changed the word Army to Organization in their title. The PLO then formed the Palestinian Authority as the new government. “Fatah dominates both the PLO and the PA.”
They run the West Bank, which has also been settled by Israelis, a source of major tension. They agreed to let some Jews live on their land as part of the Oslo Accords. “Hamas was not party to the accords and does not recognize Israel.” They want to kill every Jew between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea.
Hamas signed the deal despite “a long history of bitter enmity between Hamas and Fatah.” Both sides have failed repeatedly “to reach an agreement to unite the two separate Palestinian territories under one governance structure.”
NEW: 🇨🇳🇵🇸 Hamas and Fatah delegations welcomed in China.
The Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a declaration in Beijing on ending the schism and strengthening Palestinian unity, reports.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the signing ceremony.
On the other… pic.twitter.com/z1ghl3BciM
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) July 23, 2024
The PA ran Gaza until 2007. “Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and expelled it from the strip. Since then, Hamas has ruled Gaza and the PA governs parts of the West Bank.” In 2017 they made a deal with PLO.
That attempt at unity didn’t last long. “Under the deal, a new unity government was supposed to take administrative control of Gaza.” That didn’t happen. “When Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah visited Gaza in March 2018, he was the target of an assassination attempt when a bomb detonated near his convoy. Hamdallah’s Fatah party immediately blamed Hamas for the attack.” Hamas has been fighting with the PLO ever since. This one isn’t expected to last much longer.
“The major issues that have proven to be obstacles to reconciliation in the past were not addressed,” One expert observes. “It’s very unlikely anything substantial will come out of this especially as the biggest obstacle so far has been (Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader) Mahmoud Abbas (and) his absolute reluctance to relinquish in any way his monopoly on power.“
