Palestinian Politics after Arafat: A Failed National Movement

Epilogue

Epilogue The “Gaza War” between Israel and Hamas (December 2008–January 2009) started while this book was in production. Although the implications of this war are highly relevant to the themes and arguments discussed in this book, I was not able to present full analysis of these aspects, and will limit the discussion, at this stage, to the following notes. The Israeli-Hamas war on Gaza carries far-reaching and historic implications for Palestinian politics, making this possibly the most important event after the June 1967 war. That war represented a new phase and laid the groundwork for factors that played a role in the years that followed, through transformation of the Palestinian role in the conflict and consolidation of the PLO’s position as the “sole representative of the Palestinian people.” The war on Gaza is the official beginning of the post-PLO period in modern Palestinian history. The most important development was the absence of any role for the PLO and the limits imposed on its participation by the Palestinian authority (PA) on the one hand, and Hamas on the other. The Gaza war was the first Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the re-emergence of the Palestinian national movement in the 1950s and 1960s in which the PLO did not officially take part in the fighting between the Palestinians and Israel. Quite the opposite: Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian authority and the leader of the PLO, justified the Israeli attack on Gaza by holding Hamas responsible for the war, and even preceded that with a campaign of incitement against Hamas. On the other hand, Khaled Mash’al, the head of the 188 / Palestinian Politics after Arafat political bureau of Hamas, declared, following the end of the war activities, that Hamas is looking for the establishment of an alternative political organization that will represent the Palestinians instead of the PLO. Meanwhile, a major split emerged within the Fateh movement: on one side, the “internal faction,” headed by Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the PLO and the PNA, and on the other side, the “external faction” led by the head of the political department of the PLO and the head of Fateh movement, Faruk Kadumi. Abbas and Kadumi reached a deadlock in their negotiations concerning the agenda and place for holding the sixth summit of Fateh in July 2009, a situation that deteriorated quickly towards an internal split between the two factions. The internal split and the failure to present one united political agenda mean that the Palestinian goal of a unified national movement continues to be a failed mission. ...