Azmi Bishara, an Arab MP in the Israeli Knesset, commented in the February 8 issue of Al Hayat, an independent Saudi owned newspaper, on the ongoing negotiations between the Palestinian factions. Bishara wrote: “The Palestinians presented more political initiatives than are necessary for a people divided between a Diaspora and people under occupation. It is normal that the people under occupation will fight for freedom or will hold out. In this case, the international community or the occupying state will present solutions for the unbearable situation or for the people under its occupation. The people who are resisting the occupation will either accept these solutions, and thus lay down their weapons, or they will reject them and go on fighting until better ideas are presented to them as solutions. Thus its political program is to liberate itself from occupation and reach the right of self-determination.”

Bishara added: “In the Palestinian situation, the opposite of this occurred: there was an inflation in the number of political suggestions and solutions such that it has become hard for the Palestinians to remember the original and even the current reason for the struggle. They confused the tactical with the strategic and they lost sight of the difference between deceiving others and deceiving themselves. They mixed between what is said to assuage others and between what is considered as tactical goals. In any case, the attempts to assuage these others didn’t pay off as they only whetted the appetite of the receiver of these attempts who feels that they are coming from a weakness which justifies calling for more. Israel will not agree to the Palestinian ideas because it pleases them to do so. They will agree to the Palestinian ideas if they see that doing so serves their interests or if they are forced to accept them, which might mean the same depending on the angle.”

Bishara continued: “For example, in the second uprising, and under the weight of the suicide attacks, the Israeli capital and investors gave their government a choice: either continue the peace process till an agreement is reached, or build the wall, so it chose to build the wall. Even if we argued that the above statements are mistaken, enough Palestinian, Arab, and local solutions were presented yet Israel has not complied. It is obviously waiting for more initiatives because it sees in every initiative an Arab retreat from its predecessors. It is time for the people to wait for Israeli initiatives that the Arabs will either reject or endorse on the condition that they aren’t dictated by one faction as in the case of the wall. If there is a need for a political document or program then there is such a program that constitutes a major meeting point in the national reconciliation document plus the initiatives pioneered by the Palestinian Liberation organization in the various national councils.”

Bishara added: “Thus it is time for the Palestinians as an authority as the PLO to say after reaching an agreement that they have no more solutions and that they do not believe that it is in their job description to present solutions but only to fight against the occupation, the wall, and the “Judaization” of the city of Jerusalem and other items on the long list…” - Al Hayat, United Kingdom