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The battle in the Palestinian territories

Atul Aneja

The de facto partition of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories between Hamas and Fatah has stunned the region. Sympathisers of the Palestinian cause abroad have mostly blamed Hamas for virtually snuffing out the hopes of a unified Palestinian state. However, there is more to the fighting in Gaza than meets the eye.

The situation there and in the West Bank is only one part of a wider struggle — between the west and Israel, on the one hand, and regional players such as Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, on the other. The goal? To reshape the oil-rich West Asian region.

Apart from the Palestinian territories, there are two other battlegrounds: Iraq and Lebanon. Powerful sections in the United States want to open up Iran as the fourth theatre of combat for gaining firm control of the region and its resources.

Before June 16, when a new pro-western emergency government was formed in the Palestinian West Bank, the Americans and their allies had been losing ground on all fronts. Despite the infusion of thousands of troops, Iraq remained ungovernable. And, Iranian influence there was undiminished. Recognising that the situation could not be mended without Tehran’s help, the Americans sought talks with it. After a gap of 27 years, the two sides had face-to-face talks in Baghdad on May 28.

In Lebanon, too, there has been a setback for the west. Hizbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, has successfully stalled the functioning of the pro-western government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. An Islamist uprising has surfaced in Nahr Al Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in the country’s north. After weeks of combat and hefty American military aid, which was airlifted, the Lebanese army is yet to achieve success. It is alleged that Syria is backing the Fatah Al Islam group that is leading the revolt.

Despite knowing that the Iranians and Syrians were expanding their influence in Iraq and Lebanon, the U.S. was shocked when the Makkah accord was signed in February this year. It led to the formation of a national unity government in the Palestinian territories, with Fatah and Hamas as partners. More alarmingly, diplomatic success was achieved outside a western dialogue framework.

The Makkah accord was an authentic home-grown Arab initiative — of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. Soon after it was signed, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Riyadh. Both sides pledged to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide plaguing the region and decided to work together in Lebanon and Iraq. Faced with a string of setbacks, a riposte from the west, aimed at regaining some of the lost ground was, therefore, imminent.

Four months after it was forged, the Makkah accord is a shambles. The Palestinian national unity government has been dissolved. At an emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo, Saudi Arabia unsuccessfully appealed to Palestinian factions not to annul the Makkah initiative. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was invited for the talks but declined to attend.

With the formation of an emergency government in the West Bank, it is evident Fatah has firmly moved into the western camp. Several western leaders have already praised the appointment of Salam Fayaad, a former World Bank economist, as the new Prime Minister. The U.S. and the EU have lifted the financial and diplomatic embargo on the Palestinian authority. Israel, on its part, has said it would release the $800 million it had frozen after Hamas triumphed in the January 2005 Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Faced with this crisis in the Palestinian territories, Iran has so far appealed for factional unity. However, there are indications that the Iranians are not ruling out the possibility of Fatah attempting to regain territory in Gaza with the help of Israel and the U.S. In Tehran, Hamas representative Abu Osameh Al Motee said his group would crush any attempt by Fatah to invade Gaza.

A year after the disastrous war in Lebanon, the Israelis have begun to revamp their political and military establishment. The former Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, is the new President. Another former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, is Defence Minister. He replaces Amir Peretz, whose lack of military knowledge showed during the war with Hizbollah.

Recently, Israeli and western media covered extensively the 40th anniversary of the six-day 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in which Arab armies were defeated. Analysts see the move as part of an effort to boost civil society morale in Israel, badly dented by the result in the Lebanon war.

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