Analysis: For Hamas, unity is just a tactic to survive

[oberliner]

At the beginning of the year, Hamas and Fatah were close to signing a reconciliation agreement brokered by Egypt. At the last minute, however, Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas’s political wing, which is based in Damascus, nixed the deal.

But then the ground shook in Syria and he suddenly changed his mind. As the fate of his patron, Syrian President Bashar Assad, hung in the balance, Mashaal made a calculated tactical decision to try and ensure his political survival by approving the reconciliation deal, which just months earlier he had conspicuously rejected.

This is one of the reasons why, according to Israel, the chances are slim that the reconciliation agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas on Wednesday will last.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin referred to the disagreements over Hamas’s desire to regain a foothold in the West Bank and Fatah’s desire to regain a foothold in the Gaza Strip as just the beginning of the disagreements between the sides.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=219247