As rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah prepare to announce the names of ministers for a joint technocratic government as soon as this week, it remains unclear how the various provisions of last month’s tentative reconciliation deal will be implemented in practice. On a wide array of issues — security, public employees in the Gaza Strip, the dormant legislature, future elections, and the composition of the Palestine Liberation Organization — uncertainty still reigns. How these issues are resolved — assuming they are resolved at all — should dictate U.S. and international policy toward Palestinian reconciliation efforts.

In the wake of Hamas’s 2006 legislative victory, the international community made clear that any future Palestinian government must adhere to the three principles laid out by the Middle East Quartet (i.e., the UN secretary-general, the European Union, the United States, and Russia): (1) recognizing Israel, (2) renouncing violence, and (3) respecting prior Israeli-PLO agreements. Similarly, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly insisted that any unity government would abide by these conditions and therefore be eligible for continued donor aid and diplomatic recognition. In a May 5 interview, however, deputy chief Mousa Abu Marzouk of the Hamas Political Bureau said that the Quartet conditions “do not concern us one bit,” adding that recognition of Israel was a “red line that cannot be crossed” and that the group’s armed brigades would not be disarmed “under any circumstances.”

A technocratic government that does not officially include Hamas might allow the Palestinians and the international community to effectively fudge the Quartet conditions, or so the thinking goes. But regardless of who sits at the head of the government or any given ministry, a host of security, institutional, and political issues will still need to be addressed. It is on the basis of these sticky details that the reconciliation agreement should be judged.

Read the full article at the Washington Institute.