In assessing the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip, nearly every Arab analyst has placed the blame on Israel, avoiding the real challenges posed by rising strife in Palestinian society itself.
In other words: Business as usual.
Gaza remains in turmoil, but not solely because Israel maintains the upper-hand in the military conflict there. Yes, Israel is part of the problem, but focusing only on Israel is a fatal error.
Very fatal for Yassin, Rantissi and a host of other terrorists.
Arab World analysts continue to turn away from the obvious. They prefer to embrace preposterous theories that cast all blame on the foreign element, Israel, hoping to rally the Arab and Palestinian spirit.
In other words: Business as usual.
Some Arab analysts have argued that Israel is provoking the conflict between the mostly secular al-Fatah organization and the religiously-driven militants of Hamas.
Even after vacating Gaza, the Jews are cannily setting Hamas and Fatah at each others' throats. How cunning!
Others look at the situation and contend that Israel faces a new Lebanon-front. They argue Israel is concerned Gaza might transform into a repeat of the disastrous confrontation with the heavily-armed and tougher Hizbullah militants in the North.
Strange, no mention of the huge Hizbullah death tolls and total destruction of their intricate bunker network.
Others go further and insist that Gaza could become the new Lebanon, the southern front where Hamas militants can recreate the successes that Hizbullah achieved in driving Israel out of Lebanon last summer, licking its wounds and sending Israeli politics into a tailspin.
One can only imagine how very few other "successes" Hizbullah could possibly stand to endure.
They are all the same old excuses of "blaming Israel" for everything whenever anything goes wrong, further undermining the Arab conscience and avoiding the fundamental truths that insures the conflict will continue to rage.
In other words: Business as usual.
Palestinians have distracted themselves from the only road to recovery, returning to the peace process and negotiations with Israel. Meanwhile the various internal Palestinian factions are pitted against each other in a rerun of the secular versus religious political strife that has become Palestinian daily life.
In other words: Business as usual.
Palestinians must resolve their own internal conflicts before they can ever expect to see their own independence or achieve national self-determination.
In other words: When Hell freezes over.
But they must do several things first. The most important is to recognize that their tragedy is multi-layered.
The Palestinians want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles!
There is the conflict with Israel, a speeding car that careens past solutions and crashes into every reasonable barrier of hope with tragic but predictable results.
Of course, the Palestinian spike-strips have nothing to do with it.
This week's 40 year anniversary of the 1967 War and the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, will quickly become a 50 year marker. There are the challenges of Palestinian society itself that must be overcome.
You mean, like being their own worst enemy?
The Palestinians live in hopelessly impoverished economic and social conditions.
All of which, Arab claims notwithstanding, are self-imposed.
They are oppressed by a seemingly never-ending military siege, divided by artificial but substantial barriers like the 26 foot tall concrete wall that is designed by Israel more to steal land than to build a barricade against terrorism.
Curiously enough, there has been a dramatic decrease in bomb vest atrocities. So, let's just call any of the "stolen" land "compensation" for having had to construct that expensive fence.
Everything around them is tightening and in such a confined mental and physical world, it is easy to understand how a few cross the breaking point to commit acts of insanity such as suicide bombings.
Finally, the expected justification of terrorism that we were looking for.
A transformation is also taking place among the Palestinians themselves. Scarred by generations of conflict and failed leadership, they are turning away from secular solutions and embracing the seeming comfort of religion mixed with politics, a new form of fanaticism that replaces logic and reason with blind faith.
Just as they adamantly refuse to recognize how it is this “new form of fanaticism that replaces logic and reason with blind faith” which has caused their world to collapse even further. One need only look to the election of Hamas for proof.
Under the weight of all these problems, Palestinians are doing the one thing they cannot afford to do as people, fleeing the tragedy.
Run away! Run away!
Although leaving to rebuild their lives elsewhere in other countries may sound like a short term reprieve, it is undermining the national will.
Might all those tunnels have something to do with it?
What was once a secular and richly diverse Palestinian society is quickly now becoming a one-religion, one-identity and one-ideological entity of self-hatred. As Palestinians fall into that hole they begin turning their rage on each other.
A “one-religion, one-identity and one-ideological entity”?
While it is easy to identify the fruits in this cornucopia of misfortune, Palestinians must place the various conflicts in priority and then deal with the most important first.
You mean, like how their "misfortune" is totally self-imposed?
And the most important of all the challenges they face is uniting Palestinians so that they can successfully overcome all of the remaining challenges that keep them in a cycle of misery and hopelessness that is exploited by the opportunists who circle among them like vultures.
Here in the West we call those opportunistic vultures, "Palestinian Leaders".
There is a desperate need for Palestinians, also, to have the confidence in their leadership restored. Palestinian leaders must unite and begin the process of defining a new national strategy that is secular and speaks to all of the religious and political niches.
Yeah sure, your Mecca Agreement hammered out all of that just fine.
Palestinians must be rallied back to the belief that there is a genuine hope of peace and national salvation in their future.
If only the Jews would just kill themselves.
That will end the bitter and vicious conflicts we now see waged between Palestinian groups not just in the Gaza Strip but throughout the West Bank.
Unfortunately, those pesky Jews just don't seem very willing to kill themselves.
With new leadership, Palestinians can then enter negotiations to resolve the conflict with Israel enforcing just demands such as a removal of the fence, the return of land stolen for illegal Israeli settlements, the sharing of Jerusalem and resolving the 800 pound gorilla of the conflict that looms over every discussion, the fate of the Palestinian refugees.
Palestinians can return to a path that leads to a hopeful future.
Hell will freeze first. Trust me on this one.
Or, they can continue to make excuses and blame everything on Israel.
In other words: Business as usual.
They can dream that somehow Hamas will transform into a powerful military force and become a Palestinian Hizbullah.
That won't happen.
But that won't stop them from trying first, now will it?
Blaming everything on Israel, and refusing to deal with our own problems, will only reinforce the mental wall that now imprisons the Palestinian people in a coma of hopelessness.
In other words: Business as usual.