At issue: Have recent events in the Middle East set back, or eliminated, progress toward a Palestinian state? What must each side (Israel and Palestine) do to reach peace, or has the Palestinian Authorities fragmentation made it impossible?
The West is ecstatic over its triumph in creating and dominating a Western-influenced government in Palestine. And the recent makeover of the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, will only deepen the volatile political hysteria between Hamas and Fatah.
It is obvious that the West does not want Hamas to have any power – it knows a majority of Palestinians would rather support the resistance than Fatah’s elitist government, and that type of support would further the potential discourse for "peace process" among Palestinians, Israelis and the West. So once again, just as it happened during the end of the 19th century, Western colonial officials are attempting to secure the region to have a permanent imperial order in the Middle East. The only difference is that today the West is sending trained government officials to brainwash what is left of the Palestinian community.
Ariel Sharon, Israel’s former President who has been in a coma for more than a year, once spoke of a master plan: to see the collapse of the PA in Gaza, a takeover by Hamas and eventual isolation of Gaza from the West Bank. Well, his beloved master plan is certainly under way.
Isolating Gaza from the West Bank is a key aim of the Israeli government because Gaza is known to be the center of Palestinian resistance, and this is an effort by both the West and Israel to break the resistance to Israeli occupation.
Tuesday, Israel released a portion of withheld taxes to the PA, meanwhile, Abbas decided to not pay any civil servants who have affiliations with Hamas. This deleterious move will only deepen the political hysteria and threaten any sort of stability Palestinians currently enjoy.
As Columbia University professor Joseph Massad said, "Israel and the West are asking Palestinians to continue peace talks, and… characterizing peace in a political formula is an illegitimate right because Palestinians have already given up their rightful claim to 77 percent of Palestine."
Therefore Palestinians have a mere 23 percent of land with which to negotiate. A negotiation to have all of the occupied territories as a state – including East Jerusalem – is a very generous offer on the behalf of Palestinians, yet some people are willing to succumb to a two-state solution.
As Kris Clancy said Thursday, Palestinians do bear some responsibility to what has recently happened. But these events date back to the concept of settler colonialism, and their roots can be found in the dream of a Zionist state, of which Palestinians have been the victims of for almost 60 years. So to those who believe that the newly created government is a positive reinforcement for Palestinians, it is only a re-creation of the media’s propaganda. Visit Palestine and ask Palestinians what they feel; it is certainly something you will not hear from your president, or television set.
In Palestine, everyone knows the new government is a facade.
Hammad, a communication junior, can be reached via [email protected]
