Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have same endgame: 'destroy' Israel, expert says

Ever since Hamas terrorists carried out a brutal massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, President Biden and his White House team have been pushing for a post-war configuration that involves the Palestinian Authority (PA) – the body that governs Palestinians in parts of the West Bank – extending its authority into the now war-ravaged enclave. 

In responses as recently as last week, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back against such an idea, pointing out that the PA – headed by Mahmoud Abbas and dominated by his political party Fatah – is no different from Hamas, a rival Palestinian faction with an extreme Jihadist ideology whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. 

The differing opinions of the Palestinian body, considered to be the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people, are stark and could ultimately put Jerusalem and Washington on a collision course when the time comes for implementing future options for Gaza, the West Bank and ultimately Israeli-Palestinian peace.   

"The endgame of both the PA and Hamas is to destroy the State of Israel, and the only real difference between them is how to do this," Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told Fox News Digital. 

While Hamas believes in armed resistance, the PA instead "manipulates the international community with the ideas and the slogans of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians," said Michael. "When you look closer at the PA’s terminology, however, it refuses to accept that Israel will be a nation-state for the Jews, yet it demands that Palestine will be a state only for Palestinians."