...“I see that the Hamas leadership, particularly after the erosion of their base in Damascus, is becoming more interested in unity with Fatah than before,” Shaath said in an interview this week.
His optimism comes despite speculation by some that the Palestinian Authority has been weakened by Israel’s decision to releasemore than 1,000 prisoners to Hamas in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit....
Shaath said Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas’s military wing headquartered in Damascus, was turning into the group’s biggest reformer. “He is now the dove in Hamas,” Shaath said. “He is the one that publicly said if (Abbas) thinks he still needs a year or two in negotiations he should go forward for it. He is the one that declared our objective is only a Palestinian state on West Bank and Gaza and not the totality of historic Palestine. He is the one that is pushing now for unity talks with President Abbas.”...
Rob Danin, a former senior U.S. diplomat who specialized in the Arab-Israeli conflict, said he, too, has seen a shift in some of the rhetoric from Meshaal, but he doesn’t think it amounts to a strategic shift for the group still designated in America and Europe as a foreign terrorist organization.
“I suspect this is tactical,” Danin said. “I think it’s way overstated to call him a dove. But in relative terms, it seems the uprisings in Syria have compelled Hamas to adopt a more pragmatic approach.”..."
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