Regardless of the consequences of the embargo, there are no signs the stifling blockade on Gaza will be lifted, reads Doaa El-Bey The Israeli decision to ban a Libyan cargo ship carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza added to the plight of Palestinians already suffering from the effects of the Israeli blockade that is now forcing people to eat grain produced for animal consumption. As expected, writers called anew for the end of the Palestinian rift. Nabil Al-Sherif regarded the Israeli ban on the Libyan ship as another message from Israel which only speaks the language of violence and threats. Israeli authorities had intercepted the vessel on its way to Gaza. The Israeli army spokesman denied any confrontation with the vessel, saying the authorities simply delivered a message to the pilot of the vessel who decided on his own to turn back. Al-Sherif wrote that Israel meant to heap all the blame on the pilot, claiming that it delivered a message of peace, but that the pilot failed to understand. However, Al-Sharif added, "one does not need to be exceptionally bright to understand an Israeli message that normally would use the language of aggression and destruction." Although Israel did not disclose the content of the message, it is clear the pilot understood it and decided to save his life and that of his crew by turning back. He must have remembered the death of the pilot and the passengers of the Libyan aircraft attacked by the Israelis in Sinai in 1973. That incident was blamed on the pilot who failed to understand an Israeli message that asked him to land in an Israeli base. "It is now very clear that Israel speaks the language of violence and threats. And whoever expects Tel Aviv to speak a different language is living in an illusion," Al-Sharif added in the Jordanian political independent daily Addustour. Yehia Rabah wrote that the Gaza blockade is different from any other he has witnessed in the Arab world including the first five days of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. "It is a cruel barricade that has had a serious impact on daily life and social relations among people. "However, the blockade becomes crueler when Gazans impose a further blockade on themselves by cancelling a celebration or a festival or banning their people from performing the pilgrimage. By so doing, they not only accept the Israeli decision to torture them but respond by imposing further torture on themselves." Rabah concluded in the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida by praying for Gazans to overcome their plight. Hassan Youssef expressed his deep sympathy with Gazans who have started eating animal fodder. He described the blockade as criminal as it has banned electricity, food and fuel from reaching civilians. He said many journalists describe Gaza as the biggest jail in the world "but the conditions of Palestinians under the well planned Zionist policies to starve them are unlike any jail in the world," Youssef wrote in the Syrian political daily Tishreen. The Hamas-Fatah split was blamed on the deteriorating situation in Gaza. Raqqan Al-Majali wrote that the conflict between Fatah and Hamas opens the door to a long-term conflict between the two factions. "In addition, the dispute distracts the Palestinians from their main struggle against the Israeli occupation. As a result, Israel is more than happy to further deepen the animosity. It is using the Gaza blockade to reach that end by strangling Hamas and end its control of Gaza. The blockade is also a tool in Israeli hands to prove it supports the Palestinian Authority by trying to weaken Hamas's control of Gaza." Thus, it is not a secret, as Majali argues, why the PA, in collaboration with moderate Arab states and the US, supports the blockade and allows Israel to wage a genocide war against Gaza to force it to surrender. But what the writer fails to understand is the use of religion to further impose pressure on Gazans. On the contrary, "even if Gazans are banned from performing the pilgrimage, even if all their mosques and churches are demolished, and the genocide waged against them continues, they will not give up their struggle and would sacrifice their souls for their country and their cause," Majali wrote in Addustour. Amjad Arrar criticised the Palestinians who are divided into two governments, two geographical territories and possibly two presidents. "The Palestinians are divided into two peoples nowadays -- one gets all the financial aid from and the blessing of the World Bank and the other is living under a blockade that deprives its children of milk, medicine and electricity," Arrar wrote in the United Arab Emirates political independent daily Al-Khaleej. It is no wonder, under such partition, that the anniversary of the division of Palestine passed quietly without any commemoration. While Arrar blamed the Palestinian inter-rivalry on both parties, Majid Al-Kayyali blamed it on Fatah and Tariq Al-Homayed on Hamas. Al-Kayyali wrote in the United Arab Emirates daily Akhbar Al-Arab that the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, with his charisma and pragmatic relations, left a vacuum in the Palestinian arena. However, he said the blame cannot be entirely placed on Fatah as there are limits to Palestinian resistance like the clear tilt in the balance of power towards Israel. The Palestinian issue is strongly linked to the general condition of the Arab states, and the Palestinians have settled in countries the world over. However, Fatah is still the party to blame most because it failed to move smoothly from the option of resistance to that of settlement, from the option of building its party to building the PA. Al-Kayyali suggested that Fatah review its policies but expressed pessimism it was too late for such an overhaul. Thus the Palestinian move as a whole is in need of a new structure altogether. In the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Homayed accused Hamas of using the Palestinian cause and the suffering of Gazans for its own interest. "Now it is using religion for its own purposes by banning its people from the pilgrimage."
