By Ryan Jones
Oct 09, 2005
The Palestinian Authority's ruling Fatah faction and the largest ?Palestinian? opposition group, Hamas, agreed Saturday to end more than a week of infighting and focus local Arab aggression on Israel's Jews.
For days gunmen belonging to and aligned with Fatah and Hamas had battled on the streets of Gaza and PA-controlled towns in Samaria, abducting and torturing one another when possible.
Several high-ranking PA security officials were assassinated and wounded.
At the weekend, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas oversaw emergency talks in Gaza City aimed at calming tensions. The more secular PLO groups and their rival Islamic organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, agreed to settle future disputes through dialog.
To that effect, the groups signed a memorandum forbidding armed attacks on each other, and committing themselves to renew united efforts against Israel.
The Abbas regime and the Islamic killers referred to each other as ?blood brothers.?
Despite PA statements for public consumption, Israeli analysts see Islamic terror and official PA diplomacy as coordinated complementary tactics used by the Arabs to extract concessions from Jerusalem.