إن الاقتتال الفلسطيني الداخلي قد يشكل خطراً أكبر

من التدخل الأمريكي-الإسرائيلي

التحرير

دايلي ستار - 8/6/2007

Palestinian infighting may be a bigger threat than

 US-Israeli meddling

Friday, June 08, 2007

Editorial

The internal battles that erupted in the Gaza Strip on Thursday have dealt yet another blow to an already fragile truce between rival Palestinian factions and raised fresh fears that Palestinian society could be torn apart from within even as it face overwhelming pressure from the outside. Just two days prior to the latest round of violence, President Mahmoud Abbas had warned during a speech to mark 40 years of Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank that his people are "standing on the brink of civil war," adding that such a fate could be worse than the dehumanizing experience of enduring imposed Israeli rule. With the latest round of violence, the Palestinians have taken a worrisome step even closer to that needless and unhappy fate.

Ironically, the renewed internecine fighting comes at a time when old foes Syria and Israel are publicly exploring the idea of resuming peace negotiations. The leaders of both states seem to be coming to the conclusion that negotiation and accommodation would better serve their own interests - as well as those of their citizens - than confrontation. But the Palestinians, who have allowed a political rivalry to degenerate into a shameful war over the reins of power, have not yet learned the lessons that even arch-enemies seem able to digest.

This is not to overlook the role that foreign forces, particularly Israel and the United States, have played in creating conditions in which internal violence has flourished in the Palestinian territories. Since Hamas came to power following the free and fair parliamentary elections of January 2006, the Israelis and the Americans have openly and actively sought to play the two factions against one another by isolating and undermining the elected Palestinian government, imposing (and convincing other nations to honor) a crippling financial embargo, and withholding badly needed tax revenues that rightfully belong to the Palestinian Authority. Even now, the Israelis and the Americans are reportedly studying a request from Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas' Fatah for permission to import weapons and ammunition - tools that they will likely use to kill their fellow Palestinians.

But the culpability of outside parties in pushing Palestinians toward the brink pales in comparison to that of the leaders of Fatah and Hamas, who have been prodding their own society toward civil war. The leaders of the two factions have consistently put their own interests above those of the people they purport to represent, and have therefore allowed greed for power to impede the work of governance.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=82830&categ_id=17

-----------------

نشرنا لهذه المقالات لا يعني أنها تعبر عن وجهة نظر المركز كلياً أو جزئياً

ـ

ـ

من حق الزائر الكريم أن ينقل وأن ينشر كل ما يعجبه من موقعنا . معزواً إلينا ، أو غير معزو .ـ