For the first time in the seven years since Hamas seized power in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority – represented by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah – traveled from Ramallah to return to the city through the front door. The trip, and a cabinet meeting held in the abandoned Gaza residence of President Mahmoud Abbas, was nothing less than historic.

But the festive Id al-Adha cabinet session in Gaza on Thursday also underscored the paradox called Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians in general, and the Gaza Strip in particular. It stressed the huge gap between the speeches and announcements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett, and reality. It also accentuated that Israel lacked strategy and was being dragged, sourly, after the Palestinians’ moves.

The Israeli government is living a contradiction. In public, when it faces public opinion and rightist voters, it curses the Palestinian reconciliation government. But under the counter, quietly, it cooperates with it.

For months, Netanyahu’s government waged an international struggle against the Palestinian reconciliation government. Israel refused to recognize the Palestinian government’s legitimacy, boycotted its ministers, denounced it worldwide, and told the Israeli public it was a government of Hamas and terror. In one cabinet decision a few weeks ago, the Gaza Strip was even declared enemy territory.

Even in his speech at the United Nations less than two weeks ago, Netanyahu conveyed the same messages.

“Hamas deliberately placed its missiles within hundreds of residential areas that’s a war crime,” Netanyahu said in his speech. “I say to President Abbas – these are war crimes committed by Hamas, your partner to the reconciliation government you head and for which you are responsible. These are the real war crimes you should investigate and have condemned from this podium last week.”

All this did not prevent the same Netanyahu from allowing the Palestinian reconciliation government’s convoy to pass from Ramallah through Israeli territory and the Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip. It also didn’t stop him from reaching a UN-brokered agreement with that reconciliation government to set up a mechanism to supervise the delivery of building materials for Gaza’s rehabilitation.

Actually, Israel has no choice. The international community recognizes the Palestinian reconciliation government and wants it to succeed. Even if Israel wanted to, it cannot really boycott this government or stop it from functioning.

Also, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi’s Egypt – with which Israel is cultivating relations – is about to convene a conference in Cairo to rehabilitate Gaza. The Palestinian reconciliation government will be in charge of the rehabilitation process. Jerusalem’s current policy is to give Egypt everything it asks for, and then some.

After all the ranting and raving for internal political purposes, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Foreign Minister Lieberman understand that the reconciliation government’s entry to Gaza means a PA foothold in the Strip. This is a clear Israeli interest. “We want the PA back in Gaza,” a senior Israeli official said. “Let them call it a reconciliation government or unity government, whatever.”

Three months ago, Israel did all it could to stop the payments to the Palestinian government officials in Gaza. Lieberman even wanted to deport UN envoy Robert Serry due to his attempts to find a solution to the problem. The wages crisis and resulting economic pressure in Gaza was one of the main reasons Hamas went to war against Israel.

Next week, the Palestinian government will pay the same wages to its officials in Gaza with Israel’s silent consent. This raises gloomy thoughts about the war in Gaza, which cost the lives of 72 Israelis and some 2,200 Palestinians. Perhaps with a clear policy, more flexibility and diplomatic creativity, and less internal political considerations, things would have looked different.