(Image source: The Voice of Russia)

BY ALYSSA CARTEE

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

You're watching multisource world news analysis from Newsy.

After four years of bloody conflict, the factions of Palestine have united.  They signed the agreement in Cairo early Wednesday-- a day ahead of schedule and in secrecy to avoid the press.

Al Jazeera spoke with one Fatah leader who believes the unity agreement is a huge move forward for Palestinian freedom.

“It’s the turning of a page on division between the Palestinians.  We are now united and we have deprived Israel and the U.S. of a card to use to ignore Palestinian rights.”

The New York Times believes the agreement was finally reached because of a culmination of changes in the region.

“The forces that produced this unexpected reconciliation deal are many — the changes in Egypt, the troubles of the government in Syria, the failure of peace negotiations with Israel and Mr. Abbas’ plans to retire.”

France 24 reports many within the region are unsure about how well the agreement will work.

“A lot of Gazans and Palestinians in general remain somewhat skeptical about this agreement for several reasons. The first one being the three previous tries in Yemen, Mecca and Senegal, some of them especially the one in Mecca were followed by very serious clashes between Fatah and Hamas key forces.”

It’s difficult to say what this means for the rest of the world since both Israel and the U.S. still view Hamas (one of the main factions in the union) as a terrorist group.  BBC spoke with a Hamas leader about the recognition of Israel.

“In terms of a peace process, the United States, the European Union, Israel, of course, are all saying Hamas has got to remove its nonrecognition of Israel. Do you recognize and accept that at some point that is a necessary step to take?”
“The first thing that we are all concerned as Palestinian is the Palestinian unity and also the solidarity of the Arab and Muslims to this unity government.”

The bottom line -- he says -- Israel isn’t a priority. The chief of Shin Bet, an Israeli security group, told Haaretz reactions to the reconciliation have been blown out of proportion.

"There have been attempts at reconciliation for a long time, as has the blame game between Fatah and Hamas, with each side blaming the other for the failure of the deal."

The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin believes the new united Palestine leaves the United States with only one logical move.

“If Obama were savvy he’d understand that progress is utterly impossible now, cut aid to maintain our leverage with the Palestinians … Whether he will take this opportunity as an escape hatch to move away from his overblown and unrealistic goal of brokering a peace deal is far from clear, however.”

In reacting to the news - a White House spokesman said the Obama administration “supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace.” That’s a response an editorial in The Jerusalem Post called - quote - “disappointingly muddled.”

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