Abu Mazen attacked Hamas for the October 7 massacre at the request of the US (see our report on the attack on Hamas and its condemnation last week); A senior Fatah official refused to respond to our question whether Hamas' moderate response to the condemnation of Abu Mazen was also coordinated with the US, and in our estimation, it was indeed coordinated with the US. Alongside the US's attempts to moderate the Palestinian arena, in our estimation the name of Salam Fayed as the governor of Gaza, who may be acceptable to all, comes up again; Are China's attempts to reconcile Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and PLO also part of the global desire to prevent a world war? The agreements from the San Francisco conference support such an assessment.

By Mati Cohen

On Thursday, we brought here Abu Mazen's words about the massacre carried out by Hamas on October 7 ("We completely reject the attack on civilians on October 7"). Following the remarks, Hamas condemned Abu Mazen's words, but did so in very mild language ("We were sorry to hear the words of President Mahmoud Abbas…). See the video with the full words of Abu Mazen towards Hamas regarding the massacre that the organization carried out on October 7 in Israel (in Arabic).

Based on the reaction of the Palestinian source who gave us the video containing the sharp words of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, we estimate that the US stands both behind the words of Palestinian President Abbas, and behind Hamas' moderate response to his condemnation.

The moderate response of Hamas is a direct continuation of the new discourse of the US with the terrorist organization, which was first expressed in the guarantee that the US gave, according to a Saudi report, to Hamas, to stop the war, if it signs a cease-fire agreement with Israel. Following the report in Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister stopped the ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, and decided to bring the IDF into Rafah. In our estimation, this connection created in the guaranteed case between the US and the terrorist organization continues, even with the current pressure exerted by the US on Hamas not to respond violently and harshly to President Abbas's condemnation of them, and to leave a chance for Palestinian reconciliation that will enable the end of the crisis in the Middle East.

Two important events should be mentioned here. One is the agreements reached by the US with China at the meeting of the presidents of the two countries in San Francisco at the beginning of the war. Following the agreements, China distanced itself from the axis it was considered to be the leader of until then, Iran and Russia (and will probably continue to lead it after the current crisis in the Middle East) and engaged in calming the crisis in the Middle East; In return, China received from the US a promise not to exacerbate the crisis between Taiwan and China. The American president reiterated at the San Francisco conference the US position that Taiwan is part of the Chinese mainland, and a solution to the crisis should be between the two Chinese entities in a political discourse.

It is therefore possible that China's current attempts to reconcile Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and the PLO are part of an international step to prevent a world war, which could start not only from the Ukraine-Russia arena, but also from losing control of the war in the Middle East.

If the US succeeds in calming the Palestinian domestic arena, it will still have to install a governor in Gaza who will be on the one hand related to the Palestinian Authority and on the other hand will be acceptable to Israel. At the beginning of the war, we mentioned here Salam Fayyad, who previously ran in the elections for the Palestinian Parliament under the name of the Third Way (the first and second are Fatah and Hamas). It is possible that Fayad's chances now to release the entanglement in the Gaza Strip are increasing, when his placement as governor, if there is one, will be guaranteed and accompanied by many countries, and in our estimation, he will be considered a governor on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.