Drifting apart

By Salama A Salama

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One can understand that the US and Israel would do their best to break the Palestinians apart and turn Fatah against Hamas. What is hard to understand is that Arab countries are playing along. Why are the Arabs taking sides with President Abbas in what seems like an act of national suicide? This is what I cannot understand. The Palestinian president has just rejected an offer by Arab foreign ministers to hold talks with Khaled Meshaal, practically playing into the hands of Israel and the US.

Some Arab officials are now talking about legitimacy and blaming Hamas for staging a "coup". But since Hamas was elected, those same officials simply mimicked the US and Israeli reaction. Hamas has been first boycotted, then called a terrorist organisation, and later on portrayed as a puppet of Syria, Iran and Al-Qaeda. There was no end to the double- dealing. President Mahmoud Abbas was recognised and continually invited for talks, while Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was ignored and left out in the cold. The seeds of sedition were sowed, and now we're all reaping the bitter harvest.

According to a classified report written by Alvaro de Soto, UN emissary to the region, the US government enforced a blockade on the Hamas government to force it into giving concessions to Israel. In that report, recently published by The Guardian, de Soto says that US officials were elated when fighting broke out between Fatah and Hamas.

Now Israel is cutting off water, electricity, and fuel supplies to Gaza in an attempt to stir riots against Haniyeh's government. The Americans and Israelis are still trying to force Hamas into accepting Israel's conditions. But this policy is doomed. Most probably, the violence would escalate in the West Bank and Gaza, not just between the Palestinians and Israel, but among the Palestinians themselves.

At present, any talk of legitimacy is senseless. Whether President Abbas is more legitimate than Haniyeh is not the point. The point is that we have a situation where the Arabs are failing to see where they are heading. The moment that Hamas rejected its dismissal from government, the moment Fatah sent its forces to occupy the Legislative Council in Ramallah, and the moment President Abbas rejected the Arab League's decision, all hope was lost. Any talk about legitimacy is no longer relevant, for all constitutional and legal norms have been discarded.

It is sad to see Egypt hastening to toe the US line. The Egyptian foreign minister said the situation in Gaza was illegitimate. So now we agree with Fatah that more than half the Palestinian people -- namely, all those who voted for Hamas -- were supporting a banned group. Interestingly, the Arab League chief has just travelled to Lebanon to sort out things there, trying to look busy in order not to address the question of Palestinian infighting.

It was the wavering of Arab leaders that led to fighting between Fatah and Hamas in the first place. But recent statements can only make things worse, especially with Egypt having pulled out its security delegation from Gaza. Egypt is now clearly taking sides with Fatah against Hamas, which ultimately undermines its ability to mediate.

Some people are feigning fear of an Islamic regime on Egypt's borders. The reason they are doing so is that they are looking for an excuse to stay on the good side of Israel and the US. Still, the current rift between Gaza and the West Bank can only benefit Israel. So unless we can be fair mediators, perhaps it is better to leave the Palestinians alone.