Rajoub: Trump crackdown on Palestinian Authority “constitutes an incentive” to achieve unity with Hamas
Instead of taking the new Trump administration's policies to heart and distancing itself from terror, the Palestinian Authority is further embracing terror by reaching out to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The PA understands that it does not enjoy popular support amongst the Palestinian public while Hamas has become a leading political force thanks in large part to its success in massacring Israelis on October 7. The PA realizes that it needs to include Hamas in the leadership in order to survive politically.
This is primarily a marriage of convenience. The PA does not have the support of the Palestinian public, so it needs Hamas. Hamas cannot easily receive international funding, so it has a use for the PA. They are both willing to work together in order to promote their greater cause of hating and terrorizing Israel.
This strategy was recently articulated by top PA official Jibril Rajoub, who would "support building bilateral rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas…so that our strategic option in the next stage will be comprehensive popular resistance":
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: "We in the Fatah Movement support building bilateral rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas: … a rapprochement in the field of the struggle, so that our strategic option in the next stage will be comprehensive popular resistance and an organizational rapprochement that pertains to the PLO and that all the national action factions, whether they are in the PLO or out of it, and in particular our brothers in Hamas and the [Islamic] Jihad Movement, will receive all the commitments provided by the PLO … What Netanyahu and Trump have said must constitute for us an incentive to achieve our unity and re-examine many political policies. I hope our brothers in Hamas will also understand that they need to do some self-inspection in a way that will allow building a future for our people and besiege this occupation (i.e., Israel) and those who stand behind it."
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page,
Feb. 15, 2025]
By "popular resistance," Rajoub is referring to widespread acts of terror against Israelis through stabbing, the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails, car-rammings, and shootings.