The Middle East is in a flux as it has always been most part of its known history. Noting in the past helped and nothing now is helping. This piece of globe, also referred to as lands of the prophets, with obvious reference to one lakh twenty-four thousand prophets God sent to mankind in this part of the world, still needs another reformer backtrack people’s slide into ignominy, debauchery, disrespect to humanity, depravity in manners, beliefs and conduct.

Iraq is tearing itself apart, Palestine is bubbling in innocent human blood,  Lebanon’s political scene is fluid and fragile whereas the peace and security of the country is taken hostage by a traitor government marginally surviving peoples’ wrath only to promote the interest of the detractors of peace, security and stability of the whole region.

Gun-toting multitudes of people are presently ruling the streets of Gaza moreover no one knows how long the present tension will continue to surmount common sense and decency.

Both Hamas and Fatah leaders are being targeted and many innocent  men,  women and children are caught in the broil whereas the percentage of collateral damage is pathetically rising each day. Abduction for ransom is the order of the day and no foreigner can dare walk trough the streets of Gaza  unaccompanied:  the law and order has simply collapsed. Since Israelis left Gaza the situation has  gone bad to worse in the territory.

However, despite this total failure to manage their affairs Hamas-led  Govt. cannot be blamed for this mess. It is only succumbing to an international Judo-Christian fanatic treachery and like an exhausted swimmer is trying to remain afloat despite the hard odds of all powerful storm staring in the face.

How can any government maintain civil order in a society whose workers have not been paid salaries for the last eight months? It was expected to happen this way. Hamas held on that long surprisingly, otherwise, the West as well as Fatah had expected the collapse of Hamas Government within three months.

The part of the problem is the absence of unity among Palestinian ranks. There is no element of surprise regarding what is happening in Palestine. The  Western  economic sanctions on Hamas-led Government quite on flimsy grounds were expected to yield dividends exactly this way.

Such political polarisation is normal in any organised and civil society; however, it is deadly and fatal for a society that is vying for its own identity, sovereignty and independence. Dethroned and humbled Fatah could not act responsibly and realise the significance of this change. Its leaders lost sight of the national cause and indulged in petty politics: Failure of Hamas meant their own success and return of Fatah to power.

They simply failed to realise the cost of such policy in terms of human sufferings and national integrity. They have made Palestine a laughingstock of the whole world. Mutual incrimination is taking them nowhere. The blame game has deflected attention away from Israel, served no purpose and have only added up to the sufferings of innocent peoples.

Since it’s taking over the responsibility to shape out the lives of Palestinians in occupied territories Hamas has never been given any fair chance to organise a civil society and convert the revolutionary, boiling, slithering, abused, grossly wronged and discontent elements into a responsible and productive part of a progressive and thriving society.

Instead, by slapping sanctions on Palestinians the West pushed the whole society to the corner fanning the already existing tons of discontent. Right from the beginning Hamas tried to convince the West that it meant business and was serious to achieve just and equitable peace-deal with Israel. But they would not listen to the voice of Palestine that had spoken so loudly for Hamas.

The success of Hamas had brought into light Palestinian’s seriousness to bring peace and stability to region: they expected Hamas to deliver where Fatah had failed. Israel, the US and the EU should have come forward and started dealing with new govern-ment regardless which party had been returned by the Palestinians. They must have respected the voice of people and showed to the world that they cared for peace in the Middle East. Instead, the people were punished for exercising their right to choose their leaders to negotiate peace with Israel.

The West simply failed to notice the basic premise of the whole issue that a peace deal was to be struck. Peace talks are held between to warring parties otherwise there is no sense in any negotiations. Why did they come up with the precondition demand-ing of Hamas to recognise Israel’s existence whereas scores of vital issues were still to be sorted out? Hamas and Fatah have failed to reach any understand-ing to  form a government of national unity plunging the nation into yet another crisis of a tall magnitude.

Additional to this President Abbass, on behalf of secular forces in the West, is threatening dissolution of Hamas government which will tear Palestinian peace beyond repair. Apart from many other obstacles in realising this evasive Unity there are two main hurdles- mistrust and the expanse of  fundamental  ideological differences and clash of perceptions- that cannot be over come by any of the parties engaged in dealing with the fate of millions of people left to the mercy of lesser gods without external help.

On the other hand, Israel and the US are pursuing the policy of ‘divide and rule’ in occupied territories and have failed to realise that this is singularly the most volatile conflict that is spreading bitterness throughout the region. A new wave of hate and disgust is fast spreading from Baghdad to Beirut to Gaza as more and more peoples begin to realise the US dishonesty and failure to offer any holistic solution to this problem.

Most part of the world believes that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict  will boost stability in the region and around the globe. However, Mr Bush  and his acolytes believe that it is the rise of so-called ‘radical Islam’ and  Iran’s push to become a nuclear and regional power that need to be  countered first. Moreover, the US initiative to promote a certain brand of democracy in the Middle East has further compounded the situation and has created a complex  web of forces that contribute to make the situation fluid in the whole region.

The US has acted dishonestly. It is not its double standard that are in question: the whole lot of its policy spectrum on Middle East has gone astray.

Information

Iraq is tearing itself apart, Palestine is bubbling in innocent human blood,  Lebanon’s political scene is  fluid and fragile whereas the peace and security of the country is taken hostage by a traitor government marginally surviving peoples’ wrath only to promote the interest of the detractors of peace, security and stability of the whole region.

First appeared in Pakistan Observer on 17-12-2006