Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Ismail Haniya was quoted as saying this week that there was no intention of “dissolving the national unity government.” Haniya’s remarks coincided with remarks by his own deputy Azzam Al-Ahmad warning that “the government won’t survive more than three months” if the American-led Israeli-enforced blockade of the nominally autonomous enclaves persisted.
Earlier in the week both Haniya and Hamas politburo chief Khalid Mishaal issued a plethora of statements warning that “Palestinians would resort to other alternatives” if the West continued to coerce and shun the Palestinian national unity government.
The two leaders didn’t clarify what the contemplated “other alternatives” would be. However it was amply clear that both were alluding to ending the already fragile ceasefire with Israel (which Israel itself is violating on daily basis anyway) or perhaps embarking on a fully-fledged new intifada.
It is abundantly clear though that the statements reflect profound indignation stemming from the failure of the national unity government to end the hermetic blockade which has already pushed numerous Palestinian families to the brink of starvation.
True the crisis is occasionally mitigated by some irregular and noncommittal financial aid from some oil-rich Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
But this gives Palestinians only a false hope for a breakthrough that won’t be coming anytime soon.
In other words there is no light at the end of the tunnel and the reasons are clear.
First Israel which is undergoing a severe political crisis as a result of the Winograd Report is not willing to allow the Palestinians to have a truly viable and territorially-continuous state.
Indeed the continued expansion of Jewish-only colonies on stolen Arab land in the West Bank especially in Israeli-occupied Arab East Jerusalem is more eloquent and more reflective of Israel’s true stand than a hundred statements by Israeli leaders and officials expressing desire for peace. Actions after all speak louder.
More to the point the Israeli society itself is drifting menacingly toward right-wing jingoism if not outright fascism. And the Israeli army the backbone of the Israeli society is on its way to becoming a “national-religious army” as a disproportionately high percentage of its officers are affiliated with the messianic and extreme religious camp.
This reality finds many worrying expressions particularly the undeclared but well-known alliance between the army and Jewish settlers in the West Bank where settlers are given a virtual carte blanch to steal Palestinian land and take over Palestinian homes and property as in Hebron (Al-Khalil).
Second it is manifestly clear that the Bush administration is preoccupied with the Iraqi quagmire as well as with the political and constitutional showdown with the Democrats at the domestic front so much so that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is becoming of secondary importance.
True Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice keeps visiting the region every few weeks. But her visits have produced virtually nothing. In fact Rice’s visits have only served to deepen frustration on both sides frustration at the failure to revive the moribund peace process and also at America’s enduring fiasco to do what it takes to make the promise of peace more realistic namely to pressure Israel to give up the spoils of the 1967 war.
Third as to the European Union whose rotating presidency is now assumed by Germany the most pro-Israeli European state it is equally plain that its overall position is more or less a carbon copy of the American policy. This nearly totally negative approach toward the Palestinians is expressed in constant EU refusal to lift the blockade of the Palestinian government and also in the EU reluctance to pressure Israel to unfreeze more than $700 million of Palestinian tax money held by the Hebrew state in order to punish Palestinians for electing a political party not to its liking.
Finally the Arab states don’t lag far behind Europe US and Israel in tormenting the Palestinians. This is clear from the persistent refusal of these states to allow national banks to transfer aid money to the cash-strapped PA despite rhetorical claims to the contrary.
In light one doesn’t have to be a great prognosticator to predict that the crisis facing the Palestinian people and its enduring just cause will exacerbate even further as Israel continues to blackmail us into giving up our national rights including the right of return for Palestinian refugees uprooted from their ancestral homeland in 1948 and 1967.
Hence the PA and various Palestinian factions should be facing the hour of truth since the present situation is untenable.
Indeed if the goal of creating a Palestinian state on 100% of the occupied land is no longer possible and this seems to be the case the Palestinian leadership should immediately declare the death of the Oslo Accords and the two-state solution and opt for the one-state solution whereby Jews and Arabs would live in a democratic unitary and civic state extending from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean as equal citizens.
True Israel would vehemently object to this solution for ideological and other reasons. However Israel which has virtually and irreversibly killed the two-state solution must bear full responsibility for its own actions.
And the Palestinians are staying put. They will never leave their land nor will they accept to live in claustrophobic townships and hapless enclaves which have more in common with detention camps than with anything else.
