Forty years ago this month, Israel stunned the Arab states in six days of war whose consequences are yet to be resolved. Hamas’ own six-day war has created new political realities that may be with us for some time to come. Negotiations, conferences and meetings of diplomats and pundits flying around the world will do very little to undo the new realities if we dither and lose the opportunity this crisis presents.
The Palestinian people have paid, yet again, an incalculable price for the decisions of their leaders. We will again hear about the Palestinians losing their moral right to a state because of the abominable acts of some of their leaders and their followers.
Israeli and Palestinian rejectionists have consistently frustrated the efforts to bridge the gap between the two peoples in search of a compromise. The right-wing Israelis have been aided greatly by the violent actions of Palestinian militants, by leftist nationalists in the past or Islamists more recently, to justify and maintain the occupation. Those Israelis who wanted to maintain the occupation, and to expropriate the land, could not think of better partners than violent Palestinian militants.
Extremist forces on both sides have understood the tactical coordination that served their strategies. The only way the moderates of both sides can achieve a compromise is by having their own tactical coordination.
The Gaza developments are the most significant since the Oslo Agreement. They exposed the divisions among the Palestinians: A political one between the moderates and religious absolutists and a geographic and cultural one between Gaza and the West Bank.
In a brutal fratricidal battle, Hamas routed Fatah and the forces of Palestinian President Abbas. They were outgunned and went down to a speedy, humiliating defeat.
Gaza and the West Bank will be governed by two different systems in the immediate future. However, in the long run their fate is one and the same. In the short run Gaza will be run by Hamas. In a few months, the people of Gaza will be comparing their lives with their cousins in the West Bank: Are they safer, freer, better off? Hamas has to deal with issues like food, water, electricity, security and schools for the one-and— a-half million people in the most densely populated place on the planet; it should have a budget with money in the bank to pay to keep these people alive. It also must deal with its neighbors and the rest of the world.
The international economic blockade is unlikely to be lifted soon. Hamas will have to fend for itself in Gaza with no one to provide it cover.
In the West Bank, licking his wounds, Abbas has taken action. He fired Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and asked the respected Salam Fayyad to form an emergency government. Thus he has removed the cover of legitimacy from the mutineers of Gaza and freed his government from the political and economic boycott imposed because of Hamas. He at last did what he vowed he would never do: He jumped without a safety net in hopes that the West, Israel and the Arab governments will shoulder their responsibilities. Now that he has confronted Hamas he can legitimately claim his role as a genuine partner with Israel and the international community and enter into serious negotiations to end the conflict about Palestine.
It is up to the United States, Arab states and especially Israel to decide whether they will stand with Abbas and Fayyad, as genuine partners in establishing a secular free state, or to let them fail and live with the consequences.
The time to help is now. What is needed is a genuine partnership, where Palestinians do their own heavy lifting as their partners extend assistance and support. Israel has to face its moment of truth: No excuses. It has to decide whether it will support and partner with a moderate Palestinian state in words and in deeds or will face a religious militant movement that will drag it and the region into a holy war.
Palestinians have to declare the indivisibility of their future state in the West Bank, Gaza and Arab Jerusalem as they negotiate final-status issues based on previous agreements and discussions. Creative solutions can overcome all obstacles if a strategic partnership is forged between the Palestinians, Israelis, moderate Arabs and the United States.
Meanwhile, the emergency government of Fayyad has to provide a competent security leadership that can impose its will across the land under its control. There should be a palpable improvement in the economy with benefits going to all classes. No less important is a prompt and serious commitment to accountability, transparency and rule of law.
Israel on its part needs to release Palestinian tax money, remove all nonsecurity roadblocks and checkpoints and put an end to the humiliating encounters Palestinians are subjected to. The United States has to publicly and openly provide funds and systems of assistance to the Fayyad government.
President Bush also has to express his commitment to the two-state solution as he reiterates and redefines his vision for a lasting peace.
Arab governments need to provide immediate financial assistance to the Palestinian government. Egypt and Jordan need to play a special role in stabilizing the political and security needs of the Fayyad government.
The Quartet needs to enter into immediate negotiations with the emergency government to provide coordinated assistance to all government departments and civil society. It must resume its political role to revise and update the road map with a view to implementing a political program that aims at ending the conflict.
— Ziad Asali is the president of the American Task Force on Palestine, a nonpartisan organization advocating the American interest in establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
