The Palestinian decision to defer debate on the Goldstone Report by the UN Human Rights Council had repercussions. It affected US envoy Middle East George Mitchell's tour to the region, was a pretext for a request to postpone signing an inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement later this month and prompted some writers to call for a change in the Palestinian leadership. Ghazi Al-Dada wrote that the latest Mitchell tour to the region ended like his previous visits without the least achievement. His statement after the tour indicated his failure in all his tours to the region as well as a wane in US enthusiasm in dealing with issues of the Middle East. "When Mitchell called on all parties to abide by their commitments to peace, it meant that he was avoiding naming the party that is not abiding, which is Israel. Mitchell knows that quite well, but acknowledging it in public involves courage and dealing with the issue with fairness and pragmatism," Al-Dada wrote in the Syrian political daily Tishreen. The writer believed that Mitchell's call is unjust to the Arab party which not only abides by its commitments to peace but is the party whose lands and rights were usurped. Thus it is unfair for Mitchell or others to equate the aggressor and the victim. The problem, he concluded, is in Israel because it is the party that refuses to stick to its commitment to peace. The US administration should be brave enough to name the party which declines to commit itself to peace if it is serious in its quest for peace. Ali Ibrahim wrote that deferring the vote on the Goldstone Report was just a pretext for both Hamas and Fatah to postpone national reconciliation. "It is a repeated scenario. Whenever there is a breakthrough in the negotiations between the two parties, they find pretexts to postpone reconciliation," Ibrahim wrote in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat . Meanwhile, the writer added, the language that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal used in their speeches this week showed the wide gap between the two sides. Abbas accused Hamas of escaping from its commitments for reconciliation and Meshaal expressed a wish to reform the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and called for a leadership better than Fatah. However, the question that Ibrahim raised is whether genuine reconciliation is possible or whether the two parties are serious about Egyptian mediation efforts. Evidence shows that reconciliation is difficult in the light of the political cost the two parties, especially Hamas, need to pay. Two years ago Hamas rejected an Egyptian suggestion to facilitate crossing into Rafah or a minimal presence of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, preferring complete control of the Strip. Elias Khouri wrote that the Goldstone Report shed light on the dilemma of the PA as well as the opposition. They have mastered the game of fighting over authority whereas fighting the occupation at a time of unprecedented settlement construction and racist policies that want to usurp Jerusalem is not on the agenda of either. Thus "Palestinians are suffering from a comprehensive leadership vacuum. The peace that Obama promised is facing a deadlock as a result of the intransigence of the Israeli government on the one hand and the absence of serious Arab and Palestinian pressure on Israel and the US on the other," Khouri wrote in the London-based independent political daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. He predicted that the leadership vacuum would widen and lead to the eruption of a third Intifada caused by a popular explosion. Palestine today is surrounded by Israeli settlements, Gaza is under siege, the Egyptian stand is not likely to witness any change, Jerusalem can be judaised at any moment and the digging under Al-Aqsa Mosque is in full swing. These difficult conditions will lead to the birth of a third Intifada, something that will surprise many people and redraw the political plan in the entire Arab region. Khouri expected that the Intifada would put the US and Israel before two options: either the full withdrawal from occupied lands and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, or the reoccupation of the land which means that Israel would became a racist state and that the fight would last forever. In any case, Palestinians are in need of a new and strong leadership that can resume the march for the liberation of Palestine. Bassem Sakahja commented on the performance of Abbas after the deference of a vote on the Goldstone Report. He criticised Abbas for blaming Hamas for seizing the postponement to call for an adjournment of Palestinian reconciliation talks. By so doing, Abbas is trying to avoid the main issue -- deferring the report and focussing on less important issues. He added that Abbas should know that he lost a sizeable portion of his popularity as a result of the report delay. Thus, if he calls for presidential and legislative elections at present, he would be driving a big nail in the coffin of his leadership because Palestinians will not vote for him or his party. So, Sakahja summed up in the Jordanian independent political daily Addustour, if Abbas wants to stay, he should acknowledge his mistake and apologise to his people. Ahmed Omrabi called for a new Palestinian leadership. He wrote in the United Arab Emirates daily Al-Bayan that the Goldstone Report revealed Israel as a state that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity but that the PA's attempt to defer a vote on the report showed the true nature of the authority. As a result, the Palestinian issue is in need of a new Palestinian political regime. The first step on that track should be the reconstruction of the PLO so that it becomes the legitimate representative of all Palestinians. The new organisation is likely to pave the way for reconciliation and the formation of a national unity government. Such a government should be transitional, responsible for lifting the blockade in Gaza, resolving the issue of the Rafah crossing and paving the way for presidential and legislative elections. "In all cases reconciliation will have no meaning unless there is a realisation that the Goldstone Report proved the need for a new Palestinian leadership," Omrabi wrote. The Palestinian political daily Al-Quds praised the performance of the PA but underlined the importance of quick reconciliation. It hailed the decline of the executive committee of the PLO headed by Abbas to postpone signing the reconciliation agreement as Hamas requested in the light of the controversy over who was responsible for deferring the Goldstone vote. The newspaper's editorial praised the committee for requesting a vote on the decision within the next few days so as to correct the mistake of deferring it till next March. It also hailed the committee for going to the General Assembly, the Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council to confront Israeli practices to judaise Jerusalem. The committee also called for an immediate meeting by the Jerusalem committee and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to reveal to the whole world Israeli practices in Jerusalem. All these challenges facing the Palestinians should constitute an incentive to achieve reconciliation as any delay serves Israeli interests. "It is high time for whoever speaks in the name of the Palestinian people to realise that they cannot accept any procrastination in inter-Palestinian dialogue and reconciliation because it only leads to deepening divisions. And that does not serve the just rights of the Palestinians," Al-Quds edit read.
