Is This the Eighth or Ninth Time?

Al Jazeerah is reporting that the Palestinian factions of Fatah and the Hamas terrorists have agreed to form a unity government and hold elections.  They took this step at a meeting in Moscow.  A third small Palestinian terrorist organization also took part in both the meeting and the agreement.  According to al Jazeerah, the reason for the move is the perceived hostility of the incoming Trump administration in Washington.

This may sound like some sort of progress, but most likely it is not.  This is not the first time that Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a unity government.  I've lost count, but I think it is the eighth or ninth time.  Every time there is an agreement to hold elections, they later get cancelled.  President Abbas (from Fatah) is now in the eleventh year of his four year term.  Hamas won the last parliamentary elections in 2006 but then staged a coup to take total dictatorial control of Gaza, and then exiled or killed the most prominent members of Fatah in that area.  Meanwhile, Fatah tried to do the same to Hamas members in the rest of the Palestinian areas.

One does have to wonder what the point of these periodic show meetings is.  No one expects the agreement announced in Moscow to ever take effect.  Who is being fooled?