On Monday, Hamas released a new manifesto that downplays some of the organization’s most incendiary anti-Semitic views; on Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority’s president was welcomed warmly by the White House. Michael Koplow contrasts the two events:
The domestic political benefits of [the visit] for Abbas cannot be overstated, as he will get to coast on the afterglow of being treated as an honored guest by President Trump rather than as an afterthought. Not only that, Abbas had a White House platform to emphasize all of the core Palestinian positions—a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital—while getting an unexpected bonus from Trump as he extolled the virtues of Palestinian security cooperation with Israel. . . . As things stand now, there are few things Abbas could do that would give him more breathing room at home.
As for Hamas:
The new policy of accepting a provisional Palestinian state within the 1967 borders without giving up the larger fight for the entire land between the river and the sea, and purposely leaving out [of the manifesto] any mention of Hamas’s Muslim Brotherhood origins and ties, is aimed solely at external actors. . . . The question is whether these moves will fool anyone, as they do not represent real change within Hamas but are akin to putting lipstick on a pig. . . . Hamas’s continued terrorism will not be overridden by a change in rhetoric away from demonizing Jews to demonizing only “Zionist war criminals,” particularly when its odious anti-Semitic charter is still in full effect. Hamas also runs a real risk that this [rhetorical shift] will further weaken it at home, as its resistance credentials can now be called into question by even more intransigent actors, and indeed it is no accident that the rollout of the new document took place in Doha rather than in Gaza.
Those who already support Hamas are unlikely to be happy with the new changes, no matter how illusory they are, and those who don’t are unlikely to be convinced that this represents a new and improved movement.
Read more on Matzav Blog: http://www.matzavblog.com/2017/05/the-inside-out-and-outside-in-of-palestinian-politics/