Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Arab Affairs expert Ehud Yaari noted on Israel's
Channel 2 News broadcast this evening that the agreement leaves many key
issues unresolved.

Not only has no decision been made with regard to who will be president of
the united PA, there is absolutely no idea as to how the armed forces in
Gaza fit into the united PA - and what happens with the over ten thousand
rockets in the Gaza Strip.

In the early Oslo days there would have been a simple solution to the
rockets: simply declare that they don't really exist and that they are no
more than Zionist propaganda and fantasy. But over the past years Hamas
officials have been quite proud of their growing arsenal. There have been
too many celebrations of the rockets to now claim that they do not exist.

===============


PLO, Hamas announce agreement to end political division
Published today (updated) 23/04/2014 19:10
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=692371

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- PLO and Hamas representatives announced an historic
unity deal on Wednesday to bring to an end more than seven years of
political division between the main Palestinian political parties.

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced the end of years of Palestinian
political division in a press conference in Gaza City, saying that the Hamas
and PLO delegations had worked as "one team" throughout the reconciliation
dialogue and had stressed the necessity of achieving results in this round
of dialogue.

The joint PLO-Hamas statement given at the conference also authorized the
Palestinian Authority president to set a date for new elections, and
emphasized the commitment of both sides to the reconciliation principles
that had been agreed upon in the Cairo Agreement and the Doha Declaration.

They also emphasized the need to reactivate the Palestinian Legislative
Council.

Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad said that neither side will accept the
resumption of negotiations with Israel without clear guidelines, and that
negotiations had stalled as a result of "Israel intransigence" and "American
bias."

Earlier, Palestinian officials announced that they had agreed to form a
unity government within five weeks that will be headed by either President
Mahmoud Abbas or former Deputy Prime Minister of the 2006 unity government
Nasser al-Din al-Shaer, who is a member of Hamas.

The parties also agreed that both Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the occupied
West Bank would release prisoners detained for their political affiliation.

The division between the two Palestinian factions began in 2006, when Hamas
won the Palestinian legislative elections.

In the following year, clashes erupted between Fatah and Hamas, leaving
Hamas in control of the Strip and Fatah in control of parts of the occupied
West Bank.

The groups have made failed attempts at national reconciliation for years,
most recently in 2012, when they signed two agreements -- one in Cairo and a
subsequent one in Doha -- which have as of yet been entirely unimplemented.