I'm kinda surprised there hasn't been a thread on this.  I suppose the news has been all missed due to the Sony and Obama stuff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/29/fatah-hamas-tectonic-plates-editorial

It's a pretty interesting situation... and i'm interested to see how the west will react now that they can't just pull the usual "ignore hamas and don't recognize that they were legally elected."

Things could get real ugly with this.  Palestine may end up losing all western support.

I totally mispelled Palestine.

I blame my migrane headache.

oooh, that could be really bad.  On one hand Palestine will have an end to all the stupid infighting, on another we could have a unified " we hate israel" movment.

i dont see why we cant continue to ignore them as part of a government.

what have they done to earn the right to be recognized after they started murdering everyone who didnt agree and seized full control over the strip.

As long as they do not threaten Israel, I see no problems. If they do, things could get ugly.

Next Palestine should push for that UN vote for their unilateral declaration of independence, then we could see some legal action taken against those damned Settlers.

so...i was thinking...a unity gov means the rockets from gaza are on behalf of both fatah and hamas.  and then gives israel the right to start blowing shit up in the west bank, should they feel like it.

I think a unity Government is a very bad idea. Hamas proved that they are not a good partner for Government when they turned on their fellow citizens and killed all those that supported Fatah. Also as said by Mr.Bubbles I believe now Israel can attack the West Bank over rocket strikes from Gaza as now that the Government is unified both are going to be held responsable.

As much as I hate the settlements, I think Fatah was having some success in Israel negotiations and the West was willing to work with them. The West will be very hesitant to support any government calling for Israel's destruction. Now the two sides say they will hold another election, what if Hamas gets voted in for the West Bank? I mean Hamas whiped out Fatah in Gaza so they are guaranteed a win in Gaza but now West Bank may fall to them. As much as I agree with democracy I believe in a democratic Governmet. Its like here in Canada their is the MarxistLennonist Party (Communist Party) if they were democratically elected would that make them a democratic Government that everyone should recognise?

I think this Unity deal is a stupid move and Fatah's part. Hamas may try to seize control again not to mention they will loose legitamacy in the West and Israel could start attacking Fatah and West Bank now that they are unified with Hamas.

Its a sad day for the people of Palestine!

Israel has proven non-receptive to peace talks. I don't believe war is the answer (and even those who would believe war is the answer should know that war as the Palestinians or any or all of the Middle Eastern countries put together are able to wage it would be futile), but the Fatah method mostly involved them making concession after concession and Israel not budging.

Honestly what i think we need is UN Military arbitration. Go in, force both sides to completely surrender to UN Military occupation, and then force them to work something out at gunpoint, as clearly both sides are simply moving further away from a peaceful solution (as Israel swings ever-further to the right and the Palestinians reunite with the faction that refuses to acknowledge Israel's right to exist)

Nothing good can come of this, he should have gone for UN recognition firstl.