Double trouble
To resolve the two most dangerous conflicts in the Middle East, Doaa El-Bey finds writers looking for hope, if only a glimmer
Analysts stressed the importance of resolving the Palestinian and Iraqi issues to save the former from dissolution and the latter from further casualties.
The United Arab Emirates daily Al-Khaleej wrote that while the Palestinian factions are fighting for an illusion, the Israelis are developing new ways to create facts on the Palestinian ground. The Israelis previously used to issue laws and procedures to confiscate Palestinian land. Now they do not need any laws because Jewish settlements have quietly and gradually extended their borders at the expense of Palestinian land.
However, the editorial warned that the Israelis are not only creating separate islands for the Palestinians to live on, but are transforming such lands into areas of conflict. "What happened in Gaza at present is just the beginning. We can imagine various scenarios of division in the West Bank as well. The Israelis could be fomenting these feuds and we are only making their job easier," the editorial read.
An editorial in the Lebanese daily Al-Liwaa called on all the Palestinian parties, especially Hamas, to work to return everything to normal. It stressed the importance of working to reach a détente because two Palestinian governments would not be of interest to either of the two groups.
"The sight of two Palestinian governments and no Palestinian state is rather folkloric. Since such a situation does not deserve to exist for long, the two groups should turn the page and work towards one Palestinian government for all Palestinians," the editorial added.
Nagi Sadiq Sharab disagreed with Al-Liwaa. He wrote in Al-Khaleej, "We are before a new political reality and it is wrong to assume that the situation can return to what it was before the Gaza incident.
"At present, we [have] two Palestinian governments, each trying to negate the other's presence and take decisions that further deepens division. As a result, the Palestinian nation is divided into two entities and the Palestinian citizen is losing his identity.
Israel, as well as the US, works to further deepen Palestinian fragmentation in order to dissolve the Palestinian issue.
"For the first time, the Palestinians are providing the Israelis with an historic opportunity to find a solution to the Palestinian issue in a way that would not be in any way fair or just to the Palestinians," Sharab wrote.
Given such a difficult situation, Sharab added, the Palestinians need to think of the repercussions of the present situation and to try to stop the situation from further deteriorating to the point [where] it could push their issue towards dissolution.
He also called on the Arab nations to work towards preserving the rights of the Palestinians, not only by sponsoring a Palestinian dialogue, but by taking serious initiatives and resolutions.
Bilal Al-Hassan wrote in the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, that Fatah is left facing three crises after Hamas took control of Gaza. First, it highlighted the conflict inside Fatah between the old generation and the young generation.
Second, when the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, refused to open a dialogue with Hamas, his stand was initially considered a reflex reaction in the heat of the moment. But time revealed that he insisted on his stand for external reasons, namely because he did not want the US to reimpose an embargo on the Palestinians and Israel to boycott any government that Hamas takes part in. That simply means that the Palestinian government would give precedence to such external factors at the expense of Arab calls for a dialogue.
Third, although Fatah took a firm stand against Hamas, Israel did not seem willing to make any concessions. On the contrary, it launched a media campaign against Abbas, accusing him of weakness and describing his group as a fragmented party.
Thus, Hassan concluded, a political resolution to the current problem is completely absent. The maximum Fatah can aspire to is an administrative rule under the umbrella of self-rule in the West Bank, but one controlled by Israel.
However, Hassan added that the future of Hamas is not any better. It is left with one option -- dialogue with Fatah. He suggested that the group should start by opening channels of dialogue with Fatah and other Palestinian groups in Gaza.
The truck bomb massacres that killed and wounded some 500 Iraqis in Amirli and Falluja last Saturday and Sunday could hardly have gone unnoticed, with the attack once again instigating writers to churn out stories on the deteriorating situation. Zuhair Qusaibati wrote in the London-based daily Al-Hayat that the massacre left US President George Bush in a very embarrassing situation with the Democrats as he can no longer hope that Iraqi forces will take over security in Iraq in the near future in order to prepare for the withdrawal of US forces. It also proved to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki that external forces can shatter US support.
"The Iraqi massacre merely increases the war casualties who are not American, Iranians, Syrians or Turks. Meanwhile, the government is unable to identify the parties or countries that are smuggling weapons into Iraq, deepening sectarian conflicts and keeping the wheel of war rotating," he added.
The prospects for a better future are rather dim for Qusaibati because Bush's dilemma is deepening every day. Maliki's government proved to be incapable of delivering, any reshuffle in his government is risky as it could lead to further fragmentation, and the Shia-Sunni conflict is likely to grow.
Focussing on the nature of conflicts in the world in general, Bassem Mohamed Habib wrote in the Iraqi weekly Al-Rafidayn that ethnic conflict is the prominent feature in all present conflicts which are originally fomented by hatred between ethnic groups who are divided along religious or ideological lines.
However, Habib wrote that besides ethnic hatred, the conflict in Iraq can be described as a fight for democracy "if we can put it that way". It is a conflict between geography and shared history on the one hand and the diversity of the Iraqi street on the other. Given that Iraq shares geographic borders with five states, of which only Turkey can claim to be democratic, as Habib claims, the other states are governed by families or minority groups in spite of the declared constitutions of these nations. Regarding common history, Iraq is part of the Arab nation that has expressed its reservations about electing a government that includes all the groups in Iraq since this is carried out under the umbrella of occupation.
"Thus, one needs to realise that what happens in Iraq is not a conflict between Sunnis and Shia but one in which both groups are victims," Habib wrote.
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