A former Hamas official wrote on his Facebook page Sunday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was “lying” to the Americans.

Palestinian Media Watch translated Ihab al-Ghussein’s comments:

“You know what Mahmoud Abbas says behind closed doors?? He says: ‘Guys, let me [continue] saying what I say to the media. Those words are meant for the Americans and the occupation (i.e., Israel), not for you [Hamas]. What’s important is what we agree on among ourselves. In other words, when I go out [publicly] and say that the government is my [Abbas] government and it recognizes ‘Israel’ and so on, fine – these words are meant to trick the Americans. But we agree that the government has nothing to do with politics (i.e., foreign relations). The same thing happened in 2006,’ he [Abbas] said: ‘Don’t harp on everything I tell the media, forget about the statements in the media.’

To punctuate his point, al-Ghussein mocked those who believe Abbas’s moderate words: “The problem really isn’t with him [Abbas], the problem is with whoever believes him.”

Al-Ghussein was the spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry until resigning last week with the formation of the Fatah-Hamas unity government.

After the announcement of the unity government, the State Department said that it “will be judging this government by its actions.” Over the weekend, rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel.

Previously, Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar boasted that Abbas’s claims to be in charge of the unity government were a “marketing” ploy to reduce political pressure from the West.

[Photo: themedialine / YouTube ]