The Palestinian Catastrophe

For several hours on Wednesday, Arab satellite channels carried live pictures from Gaza of dozens of journalists trapped inside a building and ducking to the floor to shield themselves a little better from the blasts of rocket and gun fire outside. The dramatic images perfectly captured the sorry state of Palestinian affairs: brave mostly Palestinian journalists who risk their lives to inform the world about the tragic struggle between Israelis and Palestinians, now cowering on the floor as the leading Palestinian factions try to wipe each other out. Check out the first-person account of the day in Gaza by AP reporter Ibrahim Barzak.

The timing of the latest outbreak of factional killing, which has left nearly 50 Palestinians dead, made it as ironic as it was pathetic. Tuesday was the 59th anniversary of Al Nakba, The Catastrophe, as Palestinians refer to the founding of Israel and wartime exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. A day earlier, European foreign ministers held a first-ever collective meeting in Brussels Monday with their Arab counterparts to discuss the 2002 Arab peace initiative, which was re-launched at an Arab summit in Riyadh two months ago. For the Palestinians, this was a golden opportunity to balance U.S. backing for Israel with greater European weight in the peace process. Attending the gathering, Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr called on Israel to accept the Arab olive branch and "do us and everybody a good service." But in the game of public opinion, the Palestinian fighting was a brilliant own goal. Israel didn't need to complain there was "no Palestinian partner for peace." The Palestinians themselves, it seems, illustrated that to the world.

On Wednesday evening, by the way, I interviewed Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal, whose government mediated the Mecca Ageement in February that established the Palestinian national unity government and is also driving the re-launched Arab peace initiative. “If fighting continues, and spreads, and the government falls, then that would be catastrophic for the cause of peace," he told me.

To be fair, of course, the Palestinians are in miserable straits. Years of Israeli and U.S. neglect of the peace process have contributed to destructive political, economic and social pressures within Palestinian society. The reasons for the breakdown in Palestinian cohesion is similar to what happened in Iraq. Years of sanctions and isolation weakened Iraqi society to the point that when Saddam fell, chaos ensued. Unrelenting violence and poverty has done the same in Gaza now. It has scarcely helped that Israel and the U.S. have made a practice of refusing to talk to Palestinian leaders, or that they have effectively embargoed Palestine since the democratic victory of Hamas last year.

Yet, it is fair to say that leaders and political groups have to earn respect from their people as well as from the rest of the world. Mandela and freedom-seeking South Africans had to endure quite an amount of misery, yet they somehow managed to keep their dignity and honor. If the Palestinians can't produce leaders who serve rather than spoil their just cause, they may be in store for some more catastrophes still.

--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo