It is not just the bereaved families of the slain who are weeping at the tragedy in Gaza — it is the whole Arab world. President Mahmoud Abbas rightly calls it madness but this should not disguise the fact that he and other Palestinian leaders of both factions are ultimately responsible for this wretched state of affairs. It is the refusal of the Hamas and Fatah leaderships to bury their differences, abandon their power bases, put aside past quarrels and work together for the good of all the Palestinian people that has brought about this revolting spectacle of Palestinian murdering Palestinian. They should all hang their heads in shame.
Every opportunity and every encouragement has been given them by outside well-wishers, not least the Kingdom which worked long and hard to broker February’s seemingly historic peace agreement. In recent days Egyptian diplomats have also been unstinting in their efforts to arrange cease-fires, some of which were broken within minutes of coming into force. It is easy to blame undisciplined radicals on both sides. There is certainly a reprehensible element of vendetta and score-settling in the violence, but the bloodshed in Gaza could not be happening unless it were being organized and sanctioned by field commanders. That therefore implicates their political masters and lays the ultimate blame for this obscene internecine bloodletting at the doors of the most senior Fatah and Hamas leadership.
The threat from Fatah to extend the conflict to the West Bank where it is stronger, if Hamas does not cease its assaults on Fatah positions in Gaza, is absolutely wrong. There is a grim joke going the rounds these days among Palestinians, based on the assumption that Hamas would win control in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank. It is that at last, the Palestinians would win for themselves the long projected Two-State Solution. But instead of its being the states of Palestine and Israel, it would be two rival Palestinian territories, united by nothing except common enmity. Such a disastrous reality would lead to nothing except the wreckage of any just Palestinian settlement, the contempt of the international community, and the despair of Palestine’s friends and of course the immense satisfaction of many Israelis.
Nothing worthwhile can be won with bullets or by the violent victory of either side. The only triumphs to be gained will come from a complete change of heart by all Palestinian politicians. They must immediately order their people to stop fighting and punish those who do not. Then they must stop jockeying for their own advantages and begin thinking about the advantages of all the Palestinian people. If they had honored both the spirit and the letter of the Makkah agreement they made with each other five months ago, this insanity would not now be happening. Their stubborn, selfish refusal to work together is what has triggered the new fighting. And when ordinary Palestinians, most of them women, protested the violence in Gaza yesterday, gunmen fired on them. That disgraceful act encapsulates the heinous failure of Palestine’s bigoted politicians.
