Having survived Israel's third major war on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians must now keep their eyes on what really matters — namely, their unity. Israel wants the same thing now as it did before the hostilities, for President Mahmoud Abbas to choose between continued talks and closing ranks with Hamas. The third Israeli offensive in Gaza in three years began and ended with Israel giving President Abbas a choice between peace with Israel and reconciliation with Hamas. Netanyahu has now called on Abbas to make up his mind. Unless he makes the right choice, peace will be impossible, the Israeli prime minister said. The right choice, in this case, is to break with Hamas and go it alone in peace talks with the Israelis. Since the Palestinians started their bid for national unity, and formed a government that reflects this desire, the Israelis have been trying to block their efforts. Netanyahu's wars on the Palestinians echo all the acts of aggression the Palestinians have suffered since the beginning of the 20th century. In the face of such sustained aggression, of which there is no end in sight, the Palestinians have only one option: to close ranks. If the Palestinians manage to keep their unity, Netanyahu's wishes to the contrary notwithstanding, they may be able to come up with a set of mechanisms to help them work together and create a national strategy. The recent war in Gaza came to an end after a unified Palestinian delegation conducted indirect negotiations with the Israelis through Egyptian mediators. This show of unity, if maintained, will further the Palestinian cause, providing inspiration and momentum to a struggle that has lasted decades. A recent statement by Palestinian leaders meeting with President Abbas stressed the need for a national plan, one that aims to end the occupation and empower the national unity government. It is no secret that Palestinian unity is still fragile. Even the unified delegation that went to Cairo for the recent negotiations struggled to reach a modicum of agreement. But the necessity of unity, after the past several years of division, has finally dawned on everyone. Not to deny, however, that there is a fifth Palestinian column in our midst, a strand of opportunism that can surface at any moment. For just as unity has its rewards for everyone in the long run, disunity serves the interests of a few in the short run. So, rather than resting on our temporary laurels, we have to get ready for possible disruptions. Speaking on 26 August, US Secretary of State John Kerry called the Palestinian-Israeli truce “an opportunity” worth building on. Statements of this kind have been uttered in the past by diplomats of the Quartet (the UN, the US, the EU and Russia), which has done little for the Palestinians, offering rhetoric rather than tangible results. In our case, the one “opportunity” we cannot miss is unity. The rest can wait, for unless we can speak in one voice, as one nation of nationalists and resistance fighters, no negotiated settlement will be worth the ink it is written with. Let's admit it, we are alone. Surrounded by Arab inaction, neglected by the Arab League, and unprotected by the gamut of international laws that Israel makes a habit of trampling upon, we have to state our purpose without ambiguity and pursue it with all the determination borne out of years of struggle, the hardships of war, and the stranglehold of the continued blockade. Our resistance has spelled out a clear goal: the blockade on Gaza cannot go on. Writing in The Jerusalem Post, analyst Gershon Baskin admitted that the war on Gaza has put the blockade of two million people on the international agenda. There is no going back now. This goal is one we have to pursue, and the blood of the martyrs cries out to us to stay the course. Our leaders, including the bystanders in the Arab peace camp, want us to trade the lifting of the blockade for all of our rights. They want us to abdicate our rights of self-defence, of resistance to occupation, for a decent future, for lifting a blockade that was illegal and will remain so by all international and legal norms. But there is a point beyond which human suffering surpasses endurance, not only by the oppressed but also by humanity as a whole, and in Gaza this point has been reached. Our demands are not whimsical requests for privileges, real or imaginary, but the embodiment of all the commitments Israel made in the past and failed to honour along the way. The opening of the crossings in and out of Gaza, the corridor linking it with the West Bank, the operation of the harbour and airports, to mention only a few, are all part and parcel of earlier agreements with Israel. We cannot allow those who want to strip us of the right to self-defence to use these demands as a bargaining chip. These demands must also not be seen as separate from the final status settlement that Palestinian negotiators have sought for decades. The next few weeks will be particularly important. There is an “opportunity” hanging in the air. If we are tempted to grab it we may squander years of struggle in the process. To reiterate, a positive response to Palestinian demands must not bring us back to square one, but rather should be a step along a consensual path that ends with Palestinian rights becoming a reality. There is a thin line between bartering our rights and reaching a solid, viable solution, and this line must not be crossed in the quest for the resumption of talks. The Palestinian presidency says it wants the US to recognise the borders of the state of Palestine in preparation for resumed talks with Israel. If Washington declines, the Palestinian president would ask the UN Security Council for action, such as setting a timetable for Israeli withdrawal. Because the Palestinian presidency expects Washington to rebuff both attempts it is making plans to approach the UN General Assembly with similar requests in November. Parallel to such efforts, President Abbas is seeking to sign the Rome Statute and become party to the International Criminal Court, in an attempt to extract concessions from Israel's negotiators. This all seems to me like tactical thinking. But if we really want the Israelis to revisit their policies, we have to think in a strategic way and act as one nation, united and firm. We have to find the mechanisms to discuss things, come up with a cohesive strategy, and formulate clearly defined policy. The writer is a veteran Arab jurnalist in Birzeit in the Israeli occupied West Bank.
