ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Ghaith Omari is a former adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He's currently a fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. and he joins us now. Welcome.

Mr. GHAITH OMARI (Former Palestinian Authority Adviser): Thank you.

SIEGEL: First, can the Palestinian Authority, which appears to be so broken in Gaza, as of today, actually be restored to something resembling an effective government?

Mr. OMARI: Not in the current format, not in the previous format either. The attempt to create a national unity government in the Mecca agreement that was referred to earlier, it was an attempt to create a government that deals civil and economic issues while ignoring the security issues. They try to basically shove the security differences under the carpet and move along with civil and political. Right now, it's clear after this round of fighting and the previous rounds of fighting that the security issues, the multiplicity of armed gangs, has to be dealt with, otherwise no government can remain stable.

SIEGEL: Are the forces of the Palestinian authority of the Palestinian government capable of dealing with this?

Mr. OMARI: That's what we have to see right now. I mean, what we really are seeing right now is the fight for the control of the security sector. Hamas is trying to take over all of the Fatah's security services and the Palestinian official security services have not yet engaged fully in this confrontation. So I think we are still to see some more violence. However, as the report mentioned, Hamas is very well equipped, very well armed, very, very well trained, from Iran, from other sources. So we will see more bloodshed, I believe...

For the complete interview, please visit the National Public Radio website.