Palestine: Abbas flirts with political suicide

Speaking anonymously an Israeli official stated: “The Prime Minister [Binyamin Netanyahu] has said repeatedly, the Palestinian Authority must choose between peace and Hamas. They cannot have both. Our security co-operation with the Palestinian Authority, for example, has been based on the commitment of both sides to fighting terrorism. If Hamas is in the government, what will this mean?"

America has already threatened to cut funding should the reconciliation proceed. The U.S. is one of the Palestinian Authority's most significant donors, having invested more than $3.5bn since the authority was established in the mid-1990s

Abbas is grasping at straws and putting the two-state solution in jeopardy in going to Cairo to meet Meshal, rather than travelling to Jerusalem to resume direct negotiations with Israel.

Abbas is lucky that his last attempt at moving unilaterally to join the United Nations ended in ignominy. Success would have had serious repercussions for the two-state solution. He seems set to have his luck continue by failing to achieve anything in his meeting with Meshal this Friday in Cairo, if the planes are still flying.