Over the weekend, Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement hammered out in Sanaa to work together for Palestinian unity. That lasted less than 24 hours, as Mahmoud Abbas declared the agreement a “misunderstanding” and its signing by a Fatah representative a mistake. Fatah has insisted again that it will sign no agreements with Hamas until they surrender Gaza:

“Hamas is trying to lead us to endless talks without backing away from its military coup,” aide Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio. “Hamas is giving no signs of doing so. On the contrary, it gives more signs of repression and taking over more Palestinian Authority institutions in Gaza.”

Abbas said in a statement Sunday that he didn’t consider the Yemeni plan a basis for negotiations with Hamas. Either it is implemented, as is, starting with Hamas stepping aside, or it is dropped, he said.

Hamas said the initiative by Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh was all about dialogue and could not be implemented immediately. “Not a single article of the Yemeni initiative can be implemented without coming to an understanding – there should be a dialogue since practically speaking (the immediate implementation) you demand cannot take place,” Abu Marzouk said at a press conference in San’a.

Israel is not taking the Hamas-Fatah talks too seriously, an Israeli official said Monday. But if Abbas actually agrees to share power with Hamas, that would mean the end of the peace talks, the official said.

Officially, the Palestinian Authority says its representative at the talks did not have the authority to sign the document. Azzam al-Ahmed, the former Deputy Prime Minister, tried to contact Mahmoud Abbas from the negotiations in the Yemeni capital, but could not contact Abbas. Abbas had gone into meetings with Dick Cheney, who later issued his own statements about the malignant nature of Hamas in the Middle East. Ahmed signed the document without instructions or authority to do so after Abbas didn’t return his calls.

Abbas only sent Ahmed to Sanaa to maintain public relations in the Arab world. He wants Gaza back, and he wants Hamas to surrender it without preconditions or any agreement to reshuffle the government. The Iranian involvement in Hamas makes everyone nervous, but Abbas has the better approach; why invite Hamas and its Iranian puppet-masters into the Palestinian Authority? Better to tap-dance around Sanaa than to invite the mullahcracy into the tent at home.

Hamas needs Abbas and the West Bank in order to alleviate the blockade in Gaza. They want to gain the sympathies of the Arab world and to pressure Abbas to bring them back into the government, but not at the cost of giving up Gaza. They have operational control of significant territory for the first time and won’t easily forego it. The reason the other Arab nations want a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas is because that split makes it more difficult for them to exploit the Palestinian cause to their advantage. After all, if the Palestinians themselves can’t agree on their direction, then how can anyone expect them to participate in negotiations for status, even if they intend on using the talks as a sham?

And in the meantime, as always, the Palestinians themselves get used as pawns for the terrorists they have chosen to lead them.