The miserable situation the Palestinian public finds itself in is compounded by the contradictory statements issued by various official and semiofficial Palestinian sources sending different signals to the people. Prime Minister Ismael Hanyieh says his government will not recognize Israel and will not recognize previously signed agreements. Citing different and contradictory statements issued by Hamas and other government officials, Fatah official spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman says, President Mahmoud Abbas has frozen the process of establishing a national unity government. Nabil Amre, the recently appointed head of Palestine TV and Radio, says that the process of forming a national unity government is not working, and last but not least, President Mahmoud Abbas’ official spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, denies the president ending the talks. Deliberations on forming the national unity government, he says, will be resumed once the president returns home from his scheduled visit to New York.

The United States and Israel are asking Hamas to recognize the State of Israel, renounce violence, and commit to previously signed agreements. Israel, a country that has no known borders, the country that caused the destitution of the Palestinian people, the country exclusively responsible for the current catastrophic situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, the country that plays football with UN General Assembly, Security Council and World Court resolutions, is demanding that it be recognized by its victims. Fair enough, but what is it the world, and the US in particular, are asking Israel to do in return?

While large numbers of elderly Palestinians and children, and the general public are suffering from near-starvation, from sickness and lack of health care, absence of education, very high rates of unemployment, substandard living conditions, others are playing tragic games with the lives of the people.

Through constant indoctrination and instigation by and from the Israeli right-wing extremists, the American Jewish lobby and their neocon allies in America, the US administration is cornering the Palestinian people as a whole in the “doghouse” labeling them and treating them as “terrorists”. It does boycott and impose sanctions on the Palestinian people. It makes sure that others such as the EU does the same. The crippling siege on the Palestinian people is left for Israel to do.

President Abbas’ tragedy is his sincere efforts to please all sides. He wants to please Hamas, in order to avoid Palestinian internal civil strife, and to present a Palestinian united stand to the world. He wants to please America and Israel, because according to the late President Sadat of Egypt, 99 percent of the cards for a solution are in the hands of the US. As for Israel, it is the one that has the keys. It can shut the doors or open them as it pleases. And he does not want the last door to be shut before him, or on him. He wants to please the rich Arab countries because he wants to be on the right side of the equation, and needs their financial assistance and help.

But can the president please everybody at the same time? This is a big question. My hunch says no. This is apparently the hunch of Ahmad Abdul Rahman and Nabil Amre.

There is one more thing people need to be aware of: Hamas did not recognize the Oslo Palestinian Authority. From outside, it could not bring it down. Perhaps it can do that from inside. No employee can remain in his job without wages for long. 165,000 Palestinian National Authority employees are without wages for the seventh consecutive month. The education and health sectors are crumbling before our eyes. If Hamas originally wanted the demise of the PNA, it did not succeed in bringing it about. The US, the EU, and behind them Israel, are the ones who are bringing about the end of the PNA. Many Palestinians in private are yearning for the days of the “proper” Israeli occupation. At least, as one man I argued with in a shop told me, the health and education sectors then, were working.

— Walid Awad is a Palestinian journalist based in Arab East Jerusalem.