Arab Meltdown by Salama A. Salama, Al-Ahram

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The Palestinians must be aware by now that they can no longer count on Arab help, economically, politically or militarily. They must defend themselves without waiting for Arab assistance.

Half the Palestinian cabinet and many parliamentarians are in Israel’s hands. President Mahmoud Abbas is trapped and Gaza is being pummelled, all because one Israeli soldier has been abducted in retaliation to the killing of an entire Palestinian family on a Gaza beach. And yet Arab nations have had enough. They’ve had enough of this endless tragedy. They’ve had enough of the slogans and rhetoric that gets us nowhere. Arab governments have run out of options. They are tired of running around, trying to get sympathy from the UN and a resolution from the Security Council. Meanwhile, Israel is bullying everyone. Only recently it sent planes into Syria’s airspace, just to show the Syrians who’s the boss.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh isn’t even asking the international community to intervene. He’s aware that it was his movement that turned down the international community’s pleas to recognise Israel and accept its conditions. Israel’s brutal violence is becoming a counterpoint to Palestinian weakness and Arab insouciance. Right now, any talk about peace, Quartet mediation, the roadmap, or international law is just a smokescreen. Israel is winning through merciless force, and the Palestinians cannot find a way of levelling the field. Israel is furious the Palestinians have captured one of its soldiers, even though it has hundreds of Palestinian women and children locked up.

We have to admit that the Palestinians and Arabs have made grave mistakes. President Abbas shot himself in the foot when he refused to form a national unity government with Hamas. Arab countries abandoned Hamas to its fate. This is what brought us to this sad situation. This is why Israel is now ordering everyone about, bullying Syria and calling for Khaled Meshal’s head.

The Palestinians have no hope of winning US sympathy or Europe’s support. And they have lost Arab backing, both on the official and non-official levels. Arab nations are simply too disappointed to react. In a region that is drowning in conflicts, from Iraq to Lebanon and from Sudan to Iran, the Palestinian problem is becoming just one of many.

After a long history of bitter experiences, dashed hopes, and lost opportunities, we’re now told that the Israelis do not want to negotiate but to impose their dictates. The people who give us this news are the same ones who wasted time haggling about the rights of the Palestinians. Today, they must feel sorry they have not followed in the footsteps of Iran, India and Pakistan. They must feel sorry they didn’t acquire the power that would have enabled them to stand up for their rights, rather than crawl and beg.

The Palestinians have no other recourse but to rely on themselves. They have to agree on a unified strategy for resistance. They have to find a strategy that involves more than random assaults, barbaric attacks and haphazard Intifadas. The Palestinians have to do what liberation movements do, which is to negotiate when there is room for negotiations and fight when it’s time for sacrifice. But above all, the Palestinians must speak with one voice. The Palestinians will not be able to ride out this crisis through mediation or through appeals to the humanness of Ehud Olmert and the good heart of George W Bush and Jacques Chirac. They should agree on a national strategy based on the Prisoners’ Document. And they must not bow to international and Israeli blackmail.

Arab Meltdown by Salama A. Salama, Al-Ahram

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