‘The Arab spring has given us hope that the future will be different,’ says Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official and leading adviser to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

At the same time, the recent Arab upheaval has allowed Palestinians to turn inwards, and finally end the bitter divide between the Islamist Hamas group and the secular Fatah party. After years of bloody rivalry, they signed a national unity pact this month that aims to bring the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-dominated West Bank back under one authority. Analysts agree the deal would not have been possible without the intervention of the new Egyptian leadership. More important still was the political crisis in Syria, which has driven a wedge between Hamas and the group’s sponsor in Damascus, forcing the Islamist group to seek allies elsewhere.”

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