For the first time in the seven years since Hamas seized power in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority – represented by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah – traveled from Ramallah to return to the city through the front door. The trip, and a cabinet meeting held in the abandoned Gaza residence of President Mahmoud Abbas, was nothing less than historic.
But the festive Id al-Adha cabinet session in Gaza on Thursday also underscored the paradox called Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians in general, and the Gaza Strip in particular. It stressed the huge gap between the speeches and announcements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett, and reality. It also accentuated that Israel lacked strategy and was being dragged, sourly, after the Palestinians’ moves.
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