What a happy Eid al-Adha season it has been for Hamas. Not only did Israel ease restrictions on travel from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, so Muslims could pray at Al-Aqsa mosque during their three-day festivities last week; but Rami Hamdallah, the prime minister of the recently formed unity government between Hamas and the Fatah-led PA, paid a historic visit to Gaza on Thursday to convene the government’s first meeting.
The timing of the meeting, in the aftermath of the important Islamic holiday, was not accidental. In September (following the final cease-fire at the end of August that ended Operation Protective Edge), the two sides agreed that the unity government would assume authority over Gaza before October 12, the date set for an international aid conference in Cairo.
Hamdallah’s visit was purposely conspicuous. It was aimed at showing potential donor countries that they could help fund the rebuilding of a different kind of Gaza from before — one led not by Hamas, but rather by a more “moderate” entity that includes representatives from Fatah in Ramallah.
In spite of the grandiose gestures and flowery language about rapprochement between the warring Palestinian factions, Hamdallah was accompanied on his little pilgrimage to Hamastan by dozens of PA security forces. During his visit, he was also heavily guarded by Gazan police. After all, it would not have been helpful to the display of unity and moderation to have Hamdallah lynched by terrorists whom he was there to whitewash for Western consumption.
Oh, and violence wouldn’t have been conducive to raising the estimated $7 billion it will take to put Gaza fully back to the business of kidnapping and killing Israelis, and to line lots of Palestinian leaders’ pockets.
“I come to you representing [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas,” he said, while touring the ruins of Israeli airstrikes, “and, as head of the government of national consensus, to assume our responsibilities, see your needs and launch a comprehensive workshop to salvage Gaza and bring relief to our people here.”