Spotlight: Sharp worsening in Palestinian political situation needs urgent review: analysts

The Palestinians are urged to go for an immediate comprehensive review to their entire cause after the current Palestinian political situation has sharply worsened amid fast dramatic regional and international developments, according to analysts and observers.

In separate statements made to Xinhua, they warned that the sharp worsening situation in the current Palestinian political situation "would bring the Palestinian cause to a deadlock" due to a retreat in the foreign concerns to their cause and the dramatic developments in the region, mainly the Israel-Arab ties.

The current developments occur as the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has been stalled since April 2014 without having real signs for a solution in the horizon, besides an endless internal Palestinian division that has been going on for ten years.

Nabil Amro, a prominent Palestinian diplomat and politician, said the Palestinian situation was hit with a series of setbacks that clearly showed a major failure of the Palestinian diplomatic bets on the international positions.

"One of those setbacks was the United Nations General Assembly's position to elect Israel to chair one of the most important committees, which is the legal committee," Amro said, adding "this was a coup against the traditional influence of the Palestinians in the UN General Assembly."

He went on saying that the second setback was "emptying the French peace initiative of its context, which was in the beginning a strict warning to Israel, but has turned into a call for holding an international conference."

"The third setback came after the International Quartet issued its long-awaited report. The expectations were high, but the report equaled between the victim and the executioner," said Amro, adding "the only choice remained for the Palestinians is to immediately end their internal division."

Early in July, the Quartet, which comprises the U.S., Russia, the UN and the European Union, issued a report that called on Israel and the Palestinians to get back to the negotiation table, and considered "the Palestinian violence and the Israeli settlement as two major factors that would undermine the peace process."

"Besides ending the internal Palestinian division (between Hamas and Fatah), the Palestinians are urged to immediately go for a comprehensive review that leads to a unified strategy aimed at reviving their just cause in the region and in the world," said Amro.

Hani al-Masri, a Ramallah-based political analyst, explained that the International Quartet report "took the Palestinian cause down to an unprecedented level and increased the danger on the just Palestinian cause, adding "this would make the Palestinians lose their international support in the UN Security Council."

"Issuing the Quartet report coincided with media reports unveiling that Israel is trying to start ties with some Arab states and other countries under the pretext of fighting terrorism," said al-Masri, adding that "this would turn the Arab-Israel peace a priority on the expense of the Palestinian cause."

The political analyst also referred to the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to four African countries, an event that hasn't happened for decades, adding "this situation would serve Israel to get closer to the African countries to become a member in the African Unity Organization."

"The Israeli-Turkish normalization agreement was also a new setback to the Palestinians," said al-Masri, adding that "the deal obliges the two sides to avoid carrying out any diplomatic steps that may influence the interests of the other. This simply restricts the Turkish support to the Palestinian cause."

The current regional and international developments coincide with an ongoing wave of field violence between Israel and the Palestinians. This wave broke out in early October last year and has so far killed 215 Palestinians, while Israel said the Palestinian violence killed 40 Israelis.

The Palestinians also complain that amid all these developments, Israel keeps enlarging its settlements in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem, which foils once and forever the possibility of establish a one geographical Palestinian unity of lands for an independent Palestinian state.

"Israel would never abandon its policy of enlarging and expanding settlements and violating the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people," said Oukal, a Gaza-based political analyst.

"This means that any world or Arab peace initiative won't succeed in achieving an everlasting comprehensive peace in the region," he added. Endit