Upon the agreement of a unity government between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (plo) and Hamas, plo President Mahmoud Abbas was quick to sell its merits to the international community. Western media hurriedly picked up on Abbas’s comments and ran with the idea that the unity government would pacify the historically violent Hamas.

Abbas assured the international community that the unity government would recognize Israel and renounce violence. The news seemed to be a glimmer of hope for peace among the ruins of the recently-failed negotiations.

But as quickly as the media and Abbas charged off to propagate the “good news” of the unity deal, Hamas responded. At a press conference in Gaza City, Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq declared, “We will not recognize the Zionist entity.” Marzuq also denied Abbas’s claim that the new unity government would bring an end to Arab-Israeli violence.

Apparently Hamas didn’t go to the same reconciliation meeting Fatah’s negotiators did, because the two factions reached diametrically opposite conclusions. Abbas said the new government would recognize Israel; Hamas said that it would never recognize Israel. Abbas said that the unity government would bring peace; Hamas said that its military would neither disarm nor give up its fight against Israel.

Despite these opposing statements, the coverage of the unity government seems to focus almost solely on Abbas’s positive yet hollow statements. In reality, the logic that is being abandoned by much of the Western media actually condemns Abbas.

Shortly after Abbas began selling his naive predictions, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal spoke to crowds of Hamas supporters in Ramallah. “Our path is the resistance and jihad is our choice,” he said. “In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, inside and outside, our choice is resistance and the rifle is our way. There is no history or future without jihad and resistance.”

With these clear indications, how could Abbas be so off-base with his predictions of what the unity government would produce? Doesn’t Abbas understand Hamas is a terrorist group bent on destroying Israel? Of course he does. But he also knows that with the failure of the peace process, the plo has come dangerously close to losing funding from America and Europe. He isn’t stupid. He needs to convince his financial backers that there is still hope of peace—even when there clearly isn’t.

Judging by the Western media’s response, it has worked.

But the truth indicates Israel and the Palestinians are in for more violence and bloodshed. Since its formation, Israel has struggled to bring about peace. Despite so many failed attempts, it is possible. To learn about a time in Israel’s history when such peace was briefly attained, read “The Way of Peace Momentarily Restored.”