Although it gives an encouraging push to the stalled Middle East peace process that Israel and Syria revived this week indirect peace negotiations under Turkey's auspices, the Palestinians expressed deep concerns over this issue.
Palestinian factions' leaders and analysts believe that focusing on Israel-Syria peace track would certainly have negative impact on both direct talks with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and indirect talks with the Islamic Hamas movement through the Egyptian mediation.
As for Israel, it is easier and faster to reach a permanent peace agreement with Syria than strike a peace deal with the Palestinians.
The Israelis believe that Syria is one country that has one president who controls an army and all his security forces, but the Palestinians are divided, where Gaza is controlled by Hamas and not all the West Bank is controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Above all, the major issue with Syria to negotiate about is the Golan Heights, where Israel is willing to give the area back to Syria through a permanent peace agreement and diplomatic ties.
But, for Israel, the peace talks with the Palestinians are more complicated, especially having issues such as Jerusalem, where Israel considers it as its eternal capital and the issue of the Palestinian refugees' right of return, where Israel completely rejects the return of refugees to Israel.
Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas movement's spokesman in Gaza said: "The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are barren from the beginning. We have warned against it and said that the Israeli occupation will not give anything for the Palestinian people because the occupation wants to gain everything."
He added that "This is also because of the American factor which supports the occupation at the expense of the Palestinian rights and principles."
