Conquering Tree Houses

WASHINGTON -- It is painful watching events in Gaza and the West Bank unfold, as Fateh and Hamas factions battle it out like a bunch of armed neighborhood gangs. The mood among Palestinians throughout the world is one of despair and gloom, tinged with embarrassment and occasional shame.

Arab and others supporters of the Palestinian cause throw their hands up in the air in bewilderment. It will not be surprising to see some friends of Palestine quietly walk away, mumbling that if the Palestinians wish to kill each other and destroy their own society they are free to do so. The world will easily forget about them.

These are grim days for the Palestinians, but not unusual ones for the Arab world as a whole. The sight of clan-based political groups in Gaza killing each other is familiar in many parts of our region, sadly. That does not make it any better. It simply recognizes that national dysfunctionality expressed in internecine political violence is a regional Arab ailment, and not a peculiarly Palestinian one.

The Palestinians, especially their political leaders, must assume most of the blame for this round of fighting, which is absolutely incomprehensible at a time when economic pressures and sanctions have reduced Gaza not just to a prison-like encampment, but to a ward of paupers. Israel and other enemies of the Palestinians will be pleased to see them fighting each other like juvenile delinquents. We will hear another chorus from the skinheads and racists in the world who will point to this round of fighting as proof that Israel withdrew from Gaza and all it got in return were rockets fired at it and hooligans running the show inside. They will be right, but at a superficial level.

The rockets fired at Gaza are to be seen in the context of a war that still rages between Israelis and Palestinians, now more or less quiet due to a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. The fighting among the Palestinians is not so easy to understand. It is also not the first time that Palestinians have quarreled or fought each other. They did it in the 1940s, in the 1980s in refugee camps in Lebanon, and now they do it again in their squeezed little landscape in Gaza.

This is the latest and most troubling example of how a once grand and noble Palestinian national liberation movement has allowed itself to degenerate into ineptitude. The consequences of the fighting are unlikely to increase the chance of liberating Palestine, force Israel to negotiate an honorable and fair peace, or provide Palestinians opportunities to live more secure, stable and prosperous lives. All that will emerge from this is the functional equivalent of a little child taking over a tree house, and claiming that as a great victory.

Fateh and Hamas are both slowly relinquishing their once respectable standing among fellow Palestinians. As they fight it out in village streets and refugee camp alleyways, they make it ever more difficult to wage a principled and credible struggle against Israeli colonialism, brutality, and expansionism. 

At a global level, the Palestinian cause is the longest running anti-colonial movement of its kind, which is one reason it generates so much support around the world. Ordinary people everywhere understand that Palestinians fight against a Zionist foe whose predatory territorial aims are anchored in the ugly soil of 19th Century European imperialism and colonialism -- back when it was permissible to conquer, kill, and dispossess other people, and send them into exile.

The Palestinians have continued to struggle for the integrity of their community and their national rights for over a century, but they have lost at every decisive moment. Poor quality leadership has always been one reason. Political immaturity reflected in fighting within the community is another constant problem. Massive and brutal use of force by Israel has helped fracture Palestinian society and turn some of its groups into desperados who will even fight themselves to maintain a modicum of control over their increasingly restricted and empty lives. Disarray and weakness among Arab supporters has also been a problem at times. The international community's virtual indifference to the consequences of Israel's harsh policies makes the entire regional context more conducive to such irrational and self-destructive Arab behavior.

This is a dark day for the Palestinians, but not the end of the line. When they hit bottom -- and they are almost there -- the Palestinians will find better leadership that can regain their cohesion and credibility, and their self-respect. From the rubble of their own criminal attacks against their own people, the Palestinians will recognize soon that living in a tree house is exciting for a nine-year-old child, but is very unbecoming a national political movement, and is a recipe for oblivion if it is not stopped and reversed soon.