Palestinian rifts play into Israel’s hands

BENJAMIN Netanyahu is not known as a classical scholar, but he has adopted the Roman divide-and-rule principle.

The main (and perhaps only) goal of his policy is to extend the rule of Israel, as the “nation-state of the Jewish people”, over all of Eretz Israel, the historical land of Palestine.

This means ruling all of the West Bank and covering it with Jewish settlements while denying any civil rights to its Arab inhabitants.

East Jerusalem, with 300 000 Arab inhabitants, has already been formally annexed, without granting them Israeli citizenship or the right to take part in Knesset elections.

That leaves the Gaza Strip, a tiny enclave with 1.8 million Arabs, mostly the descendants of refugees from Israel. The last thing in the world Netanyahu wants is to include them.

The West Bank’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas, a close colleague of the late Yasser Arafat, is committed to the Arab Peace Plan, initiated by Saudi Arabia, which recognises the state of Israel.

In 1996, general elections in both territories were won by Hamas. Under Israeli pressure, the results were annulled. Whereupon Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip. That’s where we are now: two separate Palestinian entities, whose rulers hate each other.

Superficial logic would dictate that the Israeli government support Abbas, who is committed to peace, and help him against Hamas, which at least officially is committed to the destruction of Israel.

Well, Israel has fought several wars against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, but has made no effort to occupy it again, after withdrawing from it in 2005.

Netanyahu, like Ben-Gurion before him, does not want to have all those Arabs. He contents himself with a blockade that turns it into “the world’s largest open-air prison”.

Yet, a year after the last Israel-Gaza war, the region is rife with rumours about indirect negotiations between Israel and Gaza. How come? Peace with the radical enemy regime in Gaza, while opposing the peace-orientated Palestinian authority in the West Bank?

For Netanyahu, Abbas is the greater enemy. He attracts international sympathy, the UN and most governments recognise his state and he may be well on the way to establishing an independent Palestinian state, including Gaza.

No such danger emanates from the Hamas mini-state in Gaza. It is detested throughout the world, even by most Arab states, as a “terrorist” mini-state.

It would be logical for Netanyahu to make unofficial peace with the regime in Gaza and continue the fight against the regime in Ramallah.

Annexing the West Bank could proceed step by step, first unofficially, then officially. Jewish settlements would increasingly cover the land, leaving only small Palestinian enclaves.

While seeking an unofficial peace with Hamas in Gaza, Netanyahu keeps up the blockade of the Gaza Strip. At the same time, he tightens oppression in the West Bank, where the occupation army now routinely kills six Palestinians a week.

Many believe in a basic will to turn all of Palestine into an exclusively Jewish state, a desire they see as having directed all Zionist action.

By splitting into two mutually hating entities, the Palestinian people actually collaborate with this Zionist dream. Instead of uniting against a vastly superior occupier, they undermine each other. Ramallah and Gaza are now ruled by a class with a vested interest in sabotaging national unity.

On the face of it, the right-wing Israeli dream has won. The Palestinian people, rent by mutual hatred, are far removed from an effective struggle for freedom and independence.

But this is a temporary situation. In the end, the situation will explode. The Palestine population, growing daily, will come together again and restart the struggle for liberation.

Like everyone else on Earth, they will fight for their freedom.

So the divide-and-rule principle could turn catastrophic. It is in Israel’s longterm interests to make peace with all Palestinians, living peacefully in a state of their own, in close co-operation with Israel.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. He sat in the Knesset for years.