Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas formed a new Hamas-free government Tuesday night despite opposition from Hamas and leaders in his own Fatah party. Salam Fayyad was re-appointed prime minister, less than two weeks after he resigned in order to pave the way for a renewed Hamas-Fatah unity government.
Fayyad headed the previous government as the hand-picked choice of the American government. Following failures by the two parties to reach an agreement, Abbas put Fayyad back in charge, prompting charges by Hamas that the new government meets the U.S. and Israeli desires which are against the interests of the Palestinian people and their rights."
Hamas prevented two senior Fatah legislators, who were designated to be ministers, from leaving Gaza for Ramallah, where the Fatah parliament sits. Israeli authorities had allowed their passage between Erez Crossing and Samaria.
Leaders of the Fatah bloc also refused to support the new government, and Fatah deputy leader Ashraf Juma said the party leadership would boycott it. The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestinian People’s Party (PPP) also have refused to join the coalition, leaving smaller parties and independent factions to fill vacant cabinet positions.
The political scramble may help pave the way for the international community to force Hamas and Fatah to re-organize together, according to Charles Krauthammer, a veteran Washington Post journalist.
Writing on a blog in the National Review, Krauthammer stated, “Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, has no authority to negotiate, and Hamas…is a war-making entity. It's not going to make peace. So there is no real interlocutor that Israel has.
“So what is going to happen is you will see Israel start to make small concessions, and the response will come from the Arab states, not in the form of sending ambassadors, but of gestures of warming of relations. So they're going to have, in essence, a dance between Israel and the Arab states, and the Palestinians, who are the weaker element here, are going to make small gestures.”