Palestinians yearn for unity

By Lamis Andoni

"The Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip which has left scores of Palestinians dead has further underscored the weakness and failure of the Palestinian leadership to protect its people as it continues unconditional negotiations with Israel.

The incursion has further undermined the credibility of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority's negotiating strategy and deepened the disillusionment of Palestinians already sceptical of the ongoing talks with Israel.

The new attack, which mainly targeted members of Hamas, came a day after the launch of Israeli-Palestinian final status talks in a clear signal to the Palestinian leadership that Israel is determined to sustain what it calls its "overriding security control" over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.....

The revelations, combined with Bush's statements, which called for uprooting "terrorism in Gaza", had prompted many Palestinians, including those from inside the Fatah movement, to call for the suspension of negotiations.

But Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has succeeded in mustering majority support from his own Fatah leadership for resuming talks, mostly through fear of alienating the support of the US administration and international community for his leadership......

A statement issued by the PLO Central Council condemned Israel's declaration that the Gaza Strip was "a hostile entity", demanded that the negotiations with Israel "are linked to suspension of Israeli settlement expansion", but it steered away from demanding the suspension of negotiations with Israel......

The ferocity of the Israeli attacks, especially the killing of Hussam al-Zahar, the son of prominent Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, is bound to render the continued negotiations to be seen as no more than a cover up for an all-out Israeli crackdown on the besieged Gaza Strip......

The discussions, that were reportedly heated, criticised Abbas' silence while the US president, in the heart of the PA headquarters in Ramallah, repudiated the United Nations resolutions, particularly the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the illegality of Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem.

The US president implicitly endorsed Israel's annexation of major Jewish settlements into Israel, effectively rendering the Palestinian state into a fragmented entity connected with corridors (at the very best)......"