Inter-Palestinian fighting was in the limelight anew, reads Doaa El-Bey Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's calls for reopening a dialogue with Hamas, and Hamas's decision to send a delegation to Egypt to discuss resuming talks with Abbas raised hopes of a possible breakthrough. Nevertheless, writers sounded pessimistic. The Saudi daily Al-Jazirah expressed concern that inter-Palestinian fighting in Gaza could lead to declaring the Strip an ill-fated area and give Israel the green light to regain control of it on the pretext of ensuring security and stability. The newspaper's editorial added that the present Israeli situation and the corruption scandals swirling around Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert had forced Israeli officials into looking for any military venture likely to distract public attention from the difficult conditions in Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are unfortunately giving the Israelis the trump cards on a golden plate as if they do not know that their partisan fighting would affect their more important fight with the occupation. The editorial called on all Palestinian parties especially Hamas to reconsider all their moves on the grounds that they have not reaped anything from their feud. Even the truce with Israel which was supposed to reroot national unity, has caused more fragmentation. "The Palestinian parties are focussing on settling accounts and exchanging threats as if Gaza has been divided into strongholds that belong to different parties that in turn belong to different ideologies," the editorial read. The Qatari daily Al-Sharq wrote that inter- Palestinian differences had left Palestinian political life in a state of complete stagnation, which gives the Israelis the excuse to accuse the Palestinians of their inability to solve their own problems, let alone their problems with Israel. Given that each Palestinian party has so far refused to concede or compromise, a complete separation between the authority in Ramallah and the deposed government in Gaza resulted. If the parties had taken any steps towards reconciliation, the situation would have changed during the last 14 months. "Now all the parties insist on their right and tend to forget that the Palestinian issue appeared on the scene before all of them. If all the parties realise that the Palestinian issue is the responsibility of the Palestinian people, the situation would have been different," the editorial read. Like Al-Jazirah, Al-Sharq called on all the parties to reconsider these stands and give up their present logic in calculating the gains and losses because if there is a winner or a loser it will be the Palestinian citizen. The edit also called on the Arab states to play a more active role in pushing the relevant Palestinian parties to make Palestinian interests their priority. It summed up by asking how the Arab states can work for a peace initiative between the Palestinians and Israel but do nothing to patch up Palestinian differences. Amgad Arar satirically described the situation in Gaza -- concluding a truce with Israel while Gaza burns in internal fighting -- as "beautiful". "Hamas is holding Fatah responsible for the recent bombing with no evidence, and Fatah is accusing Hamas of fighting within the group. And the Palestinian citizens are still suffering from Israeli bulldozers that destroy houses," Arar wrote in the United Arab Emirates independent political daily Al-Khaleej. He accused the warring parties of not caring for destitute Palestinians whose suffering as a result of internal feuding is graver than the threats from external enemies. He called on them to listen to the voice of their martyrs or to reconsider what history may write about them. "History would record that you killed the Palestinian dream, worked for your own interests and called for dialogue while you listen to those who incite inside and out of Gaza." Raga Teleb accused Hamas of carrying out the quickest detention campaign against Fatah members without having time to gather evidence or conduct a proper investigation to know who carried out the recent bomb attack. The writer said the campaign could cover up for the difference within Hamas between Al-Zahhar and Siam on one side and the Hamas Ezzeddin Al-Qassam militia group headed by Ahmed Al-Gaabari. There are two reasons for these differences. The two groups differ on accepting Abbas's calls for reopening a dialogue with Hamas. Second is the difference between Al-Zahhar and Al-Gaabari on the release of the detained Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Al-Zahhar wants to release Shalit in order to tarnish Hamas's picture, but Al-Gaabari is against the release. "Those who commit the bombing are mere adventurers or killers. But it is clear that this kind of operation started inside Hamas and is likely to increase," Teleb concluded in the Jordanian political independent daily Al-Rai . Hamad Al-Majed expressed his concern at the resumption of inter-Palestinian fighting. Al-Majed wrote in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat that if the Israeli blockade against Gaza is the only problem that the Palestinians are facing it is more than enough for them, especially since it made the people of the Strip suffer from increasing rates of poverty and unemployment. He believed the main reason for inter-Palestinian fighting was linking the Palestinian issue to external parties that have their own independent calculations. "Thus the Arabs including the Palestinians are in need of a complicated operation that would separate them from external control," Al-Majed wrote. Elias Harfoush focussed on the function of weapons in the Palestinian territories. "They were first used for liberation purposes then for inciting internal fighting." Initially there was never a problem with providing Fatah or Hamas with weapons and there was no difference between operations carried by Al-Aqsa martyrs or the Ezzeddin Al-Qassam group provided that they were directed against their common enemy. But the recent bombings transformed the resistance weapons to sectarian arms used for partisan interests. "In light of the dangers of internal division, truces or negotiations with the enemy should be accompanied by negotiations with partners that belong to the same nation," Harfoush wrote in the London- based independent political daily Al-Hayat .
