By: Dr Salim Nazzal
Perhaps never before in contemporary Palestinian history has the Palestinian ship been as badly captained as it is being at present and has been in recent times. This has led many Palestinians to believe that the real crisis in Palestine is primarily one of leadership.
The inter-Palestinian conflict, however, is not new to Palestinian culture. In modern Palestinian history, inter-ideological differences and conflicts between the various ideological factions have been a normal part of Palestinian political life. In past decades, major Palestinian parties have witnessed splits and division’s .The Marxist faction's which established the democratic front of the liberation of Palestine split from the popular front for the liberation of Palestine in the late sixties was also based on ideological differences, the anti-Arafat faction within Fateh split from the party in 1983 and engaged in military conflict with the pro-Arafat forces in North Lebanon and the Bekaa valley. Yet most Palestinians believe that the current splits are potentially fatal because those forces opposed to Palestinians' right to self-determination have had an active influence on the current conflict. Recent public opinion polls carried out in Palestine show that a high percentage of Palestinians feel that all the red lines have been crossed in the current conflict between Fateh and Hamas, and most Palestinians believe that their national project will be at risk if this inter-party conflict continues.
Abbas' recent speech to the Italian media has poured more oil onto an already incendiary situation. In accusing Hamas of offering Al-Qaeda a safe haven in Gaza, Abbas is making a grave political mistake, which seems more like political suicide than anything else. If his message was intended to reassure the Americans, eager to depict every force opposing their policy as Al-Qaeda or Al-Qaeda sympathizers, he is mistaken for three reasons, the first is that Hamas is known to follow the middle line in Islam, known as Al Wasat trend which contradicts Al Qaeda doctrine.Second, because of the simple fact that US support for his policy cannot, to say the least, replace the support of his people. Third, Abbas is giving the impression that he runs a Vichy styled government rather than a Degoul government. Abbas' most grave mistake is that he has apparently forgotten that he was elected as the president of all Palestine, not only of his party.
Instead of maintaining a balanced role in the presidency, Abbas has chosen to weaken the role by playing party leader so that, instead of working to create the right atmosphere for the restoration of national unity, he agitates against a party which has the majority in the parliament.
Abbas' proposal to deploy UN forces in Palestine would be a good thing if the intention behind it were to stop the construction of the racist wall and of more Zionist settlements, and to help in the decolonization process in occupied Palestine. Yet the strange thing is that Abbas is calling for the deployment of UN forces in Gaza, which is free from settlement, rather than to the West Bank, where land is stolen almost on a daily basis. This position can be easily interpreted as his being wholly concerned with the minor conflict with Hamas at the expense of the major conflict with occupation. How, otherwise, are we to understand his call to deploy the UN in Gaza and not the West Bank? This policy has put many question marks over Abbas' strategy, which is increasingly sending a message that he is failing to assume the role of the captain of the Palestinian ship in ensuring the safety of all passengers on board. Abbas must be suffering from vast delusions if he believes that his policy will appease the Zionists, whose cornerstone doctrine is to weaken the Palestinians national project, regardless of who is in charge of it.
It is unsurprising, then, that an increasing number of Palestinians are warning against the gradual creation of a Vichy government in Palestine. Even if this concern is not necessarily real right now, the leadership of the Palestinian Authority must convince the Palestinian masses that its primary focus is on the historical and natural Palestinian rights. Apart from the two major parties' responsibilities, the democratic trend, which represents about 15 percent of the population, must be given a greater say in current Palestinian politics. These political forces could each play a balancing role, were they to agree on a unified single political program. The active role of these parties would consolidate the Palestinian national project, thus hindering any attempt towards attaining more concessions. The active role of the democratic trend would also consolidate the pluralist political culture, which is part of the strength of Palestinian society.
There is no doubt that the Palestinian ship is sailing on rough seas at present. Yet the real challenge is how to establish a team from the three major trends, the national, the religious and the left wing, which can jointly sail the ship safely to a happy berth, bearing in mind that failure would put Palestinians in the position of Sisyphus in the Greek myth, forever forced to descend the mountain to the bottom and start again each time he is about to reach the summit.
* The witer is a Palestinian Norwegian historian. He can be contacted at: gibran44@hotmail.com
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