After the speech: change or stagnation in the same place?

Written by: Hani Al-Masry
I wished, and still do, that I was wrong in my expectations that the president's speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations did not and will not lead to a change in the path that the president complained about in his last speech. Through two major indicators: the first, the postponement of the enlarged meeting that was to be held in Algeria; The second is the continuation of security coordination and thinking of doubling it.

As a result of the differences, the Palestinian meeting was not held in Algeria, which was supposed to be held on the second of this month, and research is underway about the possibility of holding it at a later date in this month. Well-informed sources stated that President Mahmoud Abbas, through the delegation of the Fatah movement, insisted on the need to focus in the ongoing dialogue with Algerian mediation on forming a government of national unity that adheres to international legitimacy. He also refused to expand the independent participants in response to an Algerian proposal to reasonably increase their number.

Without a political will willing to pay the price for unity, the division will deepen

Whether the meeting is held in Algeria, or not, it will only result in a new failure as long as the divided parties are not ready to pay the price of national unity and provide its requirements, and as long as other parties are not strong enough to impose the will and interest of the people on everyone, and as long as the president wants unity to be achieved. Its conditions are rejected by most of the people and the active factions, and as long as the opposition is waiting for its position to change, contenting itself with condemnation and criticism at times, and appealing and demanding at other times, without crystallizing a comprehensive vision, and developing a plan that opens the way for building an alternative from the current reality if the current political system does not respond to the call for change, from Through political and public pressure on the official leadership and the Fatah movement to work together to create a true partnership that changes power and the political path in favor of a consensual national path, rebuilding the organization’s institutions to include the various colors of the political spectrum, through national consensus, and resorting to elections at all levels and political and trade union sectors.

Without achieving the aforementioned, the division will continue, deepen and turn into separation, which portends the continuation of the state of siege, aggression and truces that are extended time after time in the Gaza Strip without a horizon for decisive change, and with no total exclusion of a long-term truce on the basis of security in exchange for an economy and facilities in parallel. With economic peace and security cooperation in the West Bank.

At the same time, Israel continues to swallow the West Bank within the policy of creeping and gradual annexation, which is accompanied by the completion of the Judaization of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and the endeavor to liquidate the refugee issue, the racial discrimination against our people at home, and the blockade and aggression against the Gaza Strip; That is, continuing the policy of escalating the conflict and not reducing it, as they claim.

This was evident in the escalation of incursions, assassinations, and arrests, especially in Jenin and Nablus, amid discussions within the Israeli political, military, and security circles about what are the best policies, and the trade-off between continuing the aggression at its current pace, or mitigating it, provided that the Palestinian Authority doubles its role, especially in the cities. or escalate it by using assassinations from the air, or by carrying out a new “defensive wall” operation or operations; In the sense that the occupying forces, in large numbers, completely occupy an area, and Jenin is nominated to be the first, and they will remain in it until the resistance fighters are arrested and killed and the resistance infrastructure is liquidated.

The authority is at a crossroads, and the opposition is waiting for it

The authority appears helpless, confused and weak, as it continues security coordination, but within the minimum, and it is required to double it. If it does everything that the occupation demands of arresting the resistance fighters and withdrawing weapons without a political horizon, it fears that the resistance fighters will revolt with increasing popular support, as happened when it arrested Musab Shtayyeh and Brigadier General Tubaila In Nablus, in light of the escalation of resistance, to the extent that more than 200 shootings were carried out against the occupation patrols and settlers during the month of September, according to the Israeli Shin Bet.

And in the event that the authority stands idly by, this will push the occupation to carry out the task alone, and this reduces its need for it, and this may encourage it to re-disassemble and re-install the authority, and turn it more quickly into a full-fledged security agent, and an obedient tool in its hand.

This scenario (escalation) will be strengthened if the right-wing led by Benjamin Netanyahu wins the upcoming elections, or if the authority chooses to side with its people and proceeds to implement unanimous decisions regarding reconsideration of the political, security and economic commitments resulting from the Oslo Accords, and to stop working on them all at once or gradually, and this matter It will open a wide political horizon for the Palestinians, and it will put the PA in a confrontation with the occupation, which it is not ready for, and it must start preparing for this option. Because the existing structure in it is against any fundamental change; This makes it more likely that the PA will remain as it is, and this will make it continue its progress, slowly or quickly, to turn into a security agent completely subservient to what the occupation wants.

In this context, the information circulating about the calls that took place between President Abbas and the Israeli President and his Minister of War to congratulate them on the Jewish holidays discussed how the PA could carry out its responsibilities in terms of security coordination and cooperation. Media sources also mentioned that the PA is trying to solve the issue of persecuted and exposed resistance fighters. For assassination and arrest by persuading them to surrender themselves and their weapons in exchange for financial compensation, and perhaps joining the security services, in return for pardoning them with a pledge from the authority and the occupation not to arrest them.

The same sources indicated that the persecuted resistance fighters rejected this offer, as evidenced by their recent escalation of resistance operations on their own initiative, with the availability of an increasing popular incubator, and not by confronting the Israeli incursions only, and this is true as evidenced by the issuance of statements by the "Lions' Den" and other resistance brigades adopting operations Resistance targeted Israeli sites and targets.

This path and fate reached by the authority is a natural result of the failure of the Palestinian path to change after the failure of Oslo and the negotiating process, since the failure of the Camp David summit in the year 2000, and as a result of the shift in Israeli policy from a policy of separation from the Palestinians, and the approval of the establishment of a Palestinian state according to Israeli conditions that strip its specifications. States, within a dysfunctional political process, as happened since the signing of the Oslo Accords until 2009, when Netanyahu returned to the premiership, determined to complete the Israeli eradication of Oslo and preserve it for the Palestinians, insisting on a policy of rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, and removing the political dimension from Israeli-Palestinian relations , limiting it to an economic security ceiling, proceeding to divide and fragment the Palestinians, and dealing with them as individuals and not as a people under occupation, and swallowing more of their land; The most that can be allowed to be established is a conflicting entity or entities that are or are totally subject to the occupation.

A political, leadership and program incubator is required

The president's recent speech has no meaning without changing the course, adopting a new vision and strategies, providing a political and leadership incubator (from the existing factions and leaders, and this is impossible and unlikely so far, or the emergence of new leaders, factions, and movements, or a combination of the old and the new), the existence of a political horizon, and the formation of A broad national front or meeting that is capable of imposing national unity on a national basis (that embodies common denominators), democracy, and genuine partnership and making it a priority for the various parties, especially the official leadership. Likewise, there is no meaning to the criticisms and condemnations associated with or exchanged with the appeals and demands of the official discourse.

Without providing for the above, the old has remained and will remain on its feet, and the worst thing is that things are going from bad to worse, and the valiant and glorious resistance will not be invested politically in proportion to the size of the heroics and sacrifices.