During the entire round of talks between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and his representatives with Hamas leaders regarding the establishment of a national unity government, there have been optimistic announcements made about progress, but the result in the final analysis has been the opposite: additional escalation in the "war between the camps," more street battles and more people killed, wounded and kidnapped. The headlines repeat themselves: a cease-fire between the sides that collapses overnight, and arguments over the distribution of portfolios in the unity government that apparently will not come into being, and if it does, will not last. Abu Mazen publishes an ultimatum to the effect that he will move up the elections, and one of the mediators, a Palestinian or an Egyptian, drafts a new and convoluted text that is supposed to bridge the gaps between the two sides' positions.

A cartoon published in the newspaper Palestinian Al-Ayyam shows a document of understanding that will serve as the basis for the establishment of a national unity government, in the form of a complicated maze. In its center: a Palestinian who has no idea where to go.

Many of the Palestinian spokesmen are despairing. Hafez Barghouti, the editor of the PA organ Al-Hayat al-Jadida, wrote on the first anniversary of the democratic elections won by Hamas that Palestinian democracy has turned into a democracy of blood, in which "the rule of blood" has replaced the "rule of the people." Last weekend Barghouti participated in a convention of Palestinian journalists in Jericho, which two journalists from Gaza also managed to attend. He said that he heard a journalist from the territories say to a journalist from East Jerusalem: "You at least have protection, since you live under the occupation." If such things are being published in an official Palestinian newspaper, that is a sign that the public in the territories is fed up.

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The evil begins in Gaza. The statistics are familiar: a crowded and besieged strip of land, largely cut off from the world, with an impoverished population lacking any economic future, political horizon and social infrastructure. The Palestinians have not succeeded in creating a government of law and order in Gaza, with an economic foundation.

But Israeli governments are also to blame for what is happening in Gaza. The Israeli closure of the Gaza Strip began about 17 years ago, in the wake of vigilante knifings and the first Gulf War. In the Oslo Accords Israel promised to maintain territorial contiguity between Gaza and the West Bank. There were several attempts to create such contiguity, but they were not implemented. On the Israeli side this was a blatant violation of the accords. Because of security fears, Israel prevented the regular operation of the airport in Gaza, and piled obstacles in the way of the construction of the seaport. The result: Besieged and impoverished Gaza became an economic, social and political pressure cooker.

The partially open border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt does not help Gaza economically; its only chance is forging some kind of connection to Israel. A regular connection between Gaza and the West Bank is, in effect, the only way of restraining the power and influence of Hamas, which is strong in Gaza and weak in the West Bank. The more Gaza has become disconnected from the West Bank, the more the Hamas regime has become entrenched there.

The bloody battles between the factions in Gaza are affecting the entire region. From a fight for political power they have turned into struggles of an ethical, ideological nature. Hamas is identified with the steadfast front in the Arab world, which is very popular in the Arab street. This is a radical position that is hostile to Israel, and that views the Zionist state as a passing, neocolonialist entity, composed of various embattled ethnic groups with a foreign and immoral culture that preaches hatred of the Arabs and of Islam. Hamas adopts the same views as the Muslim Brotherhood and as many others in the Arab world, who reject recognition and contacts with Israel and at every opportunity condemn attempts at normalization. And on the other hand, Abu Mazen, his representative in Gaza Mohammed Dahlan, and their friends are identified in Gaza with rotten and corrupt regimes that serve American interests.

What is happening in Gaza therefore endangers not only the inhabitants of the Strip, but all of us, Israelis and Palestinians, who are sliding down the slippery slope of a cultural and religious battle.