PALESTINE “NATIONAL UNITY”, AN OBJECTIVE SEEKED WITHOUT SUCCESS

Since the first war between Israel and the Arab environment, Palestinian factions have always sought “national unity”, taking into account that they all had as their main objective to fight for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

But this unity was never consecrated because the internal divisions between these movements, between those who adopted the path of terrorist violence to combat Israel, and those who, without abandoning the armed struggle, gave priority to negotiation, were very difficult to understand.

The best image of that situation was that of Yasser Arafat speaking at the United Nations and stating “I have an olive branch in one hand, and a rifle in the other. Don't let the branch disappear."

Between common wills and quarrels, attempts at unity were made that did not last very long. There was a time when violence submerged moderation. Thus appeared the plane hijackings, the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich; the attacks against Jewish interests in the West, the Arlos Illich phenomenon and other displays of force. Hence it could be said that there was never true unity.

Algeria was the country that made the most efforts to reunite Palestinian leaders. He invited them again and again; He asked them to consider the interest of the Arab Nation, but everything that was being cooked in the residences of the pine club did not work out.

Arafat could not stand Abu Nidal, one of the most fanatics of violence. Between Georges Habache, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Abu JIOhad, of Fatah (under the leadership of Rafat) the flow was far from over. It must be said that Arafat, at least, imposed on everyone the idea that armed struggle was a strategy, not a tactic, for the liberation of Palestine.

Now it is China that this week has intervened politically in the Palestinian macrocosm to bring together Hamas and Al Fatah in Beijing to stage a reconciliation under the auspices of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who will undoubtedly have referred to the great success of normalization. between Saudi Arabia and Iran, thanks to China.

Yi has called on the 14 Palestinian factions meeting in Beijing to assemble a national interim reconciliation government. Will China succeed this time, or will it fail as happened to Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and others? It is difficult to imagine this with the prospect of the Gaza war concluding with a continued Israeli presence in the enclave.

The dark clouds have already begun with the interview announced in Florida between Netanyahu and former president Trump.