Palestinian politicians in the West Bank and Gaza, having amply demonstrated their inability to end their current impasse, have left their people no choice but to pray to God for release. The comprehensive Palestinian national dialogue that was scheduled to be held in Cairo 10 November had to be postponed, plunging the Palestinians into a state of pessimistic gloom, as though they were not already suffering enough without adding disappointment in efforts to resolve the power struggle over a Palestinian ruling authority that everyone agrees is fragile and has limited powers. Hopes for an end to the crisis were pinned on the Arabs' ability to summon collective resolve to back the Egyptian mediating drive that had the impartiality and stamina needed to bring conflicting Palestinian parties together for talks and that, simultaneously, had the ability and determination needed to obstruct Israeli designs to sabotage the talks. Unfortunately, well-meaning plans are not always borne out by conditions in the field. The rival parties possessed neither the will to talk nor the requisite good intentions. The Arabs, regretfully, do not possess the necessary collective resolve and are divided over their assessment of the situation and what it would take to put an end to the crisis, the repercussions of which are spilling over into countries neighbouring Palestine as well as the rest of the Arab world. Hamas's decision not to attend unless the Palestinian Authority (PA) released all political detainees, which Hamas claims number over 600, mostly Hamas members, ushered in a new and bitter round of mutual recriminations and tit-for-tat provocations. Against that climate, the foreign ministers who had gathered in Cairo last Wednesday were too divided to take a clear decision. PA President Mahmoud Abbas had hoped this decision would be one that would twist Hamas's arm and take the form of a declaration blaming that movement for the breakdown in the dialogue and invoking sanctions against it. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa had hinted more than a month ago that such a resolution might be possible. Even the resolutions adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organisation Central Committee on Sunday and Monday constitute an escalation of the pressures on Hamas to agree to talks unconditionally. Abbas, whom the Central Committee had elected by a majority of votes as the president of a Palestinian state, announced that he would hold early simultaneous legislative and presidential elections if efforts to convene a comprehensive national dialogue fail to bear fruit before the end of the year. There is nothing accidental about this timing. Hamas had declared that as of 9 January it would no longer regard Abbas as the legitimate Palestinian president. This issue, in turn, has stirred considerable legal and constitutional debate, as well as no small degree of acrimony, all of which are fuelling forces aimed at driving a deeper wedge between the Palestinian factions. It is also clear that Abbas is upping the pressure on the Arab League to take the necessary actions to pressure pro-Hamas forces and Hamas itself before the Palestinian rift becomes too recalcitrant to solve. But since Hamas denounced Abbas's decision the moment it was uttered, the elections, if they take place, will only be held in the West Bank, since Hamas, of course, would not allow them to be held in Gaza. The tensions that this will arouse will lead to further escalation and perhaps to the internationalisation of the crisis. The bitter irony is that the rival Palestinian factions know as well as all other Palestinian factions and the Palestinian people themselves that Israel is all the while playing the Palestinians factions off against each other. The aim of the game, which Israel plays expertly, is to propel the rift to a complete and permanent rupture between the West Bank and Gaza and to isolate Gaza entirely. When we understand this, we can understand Israel's attitude towards the truce, which it wants free-of- charge and to be one-sided. Then, too, we can see why Israel is so insistent on keeping the border crossings closed so as to compel the people in Gaza to turn to Egypt for their needs and, thereby, to twist the nature of the conflict from one between the occupier and the occupied to one between Gaza and Egypt. In the interest of propelling the situation in Gaza to critical mass, to the tragic detriment of the health and wellbeing of the people there, Israel has remained deaf to international appeals, including that by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, to open the border crossings in order to let in desperately needed aid. The Palestinian rift has handed Israel the golden opportunity to follow through on the Sharon policy that aims to relieve Israel, as an occupying power, of its legal, political, moral and humanitarian responsibilities for Gaza. This strategy, moreover, is the cornerstone in a strategy that seeks to forestall the creation of a Palestinian state and propel the Palestinian national project into a new maze. Some might think that it will make no difference if Palestinian dialogue is deferred until after Obama is sworn into office in the White House. However, recent developments make it very clear that Israel is taking advantage of every passing minute and using every possible means to destroy all possibility for the fulfilment of Palestinian aims and aspirations. It is not just the Palestinians who stand to suffer. Arab interests and Arab security will be in grave jeopardy if Israeli designs succeed. Indeed, this realisation has been one of the prime motivations behind Egypt's drive to mediate between the Palestinian factions. And it has been so persistent because it knows that to abandon all efforts to end the Palestinian rift would be an act of negligence towards Egypt's national security needs and those of the Arabs in general.
