An interview on Morning Edition this week filled a gap in news coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. It gave a Palestinian view of a policy aimed to bring progress, or peace. Mustafa Barghouti, a well-known politician, spoke of the ambition to form a unity government.
When I say there’s a gap in coverage, I should take a moment to show what that means. We have heard many perspectives on all sides of the conflict since October 7, when Hamas fighters came out of Gaza to attack Israel, and Israel’s military began its response. Those perspectives includes Palestinians: We’ve heard the voices of people suffering and dying in Gaza, at least when communications are not cut off. We’ve visited Palestinian settlements in the West Bank and heard of their struggles with Israeli settlers and security forces. We’ve even heard from Hamas, the group responsible for October 7.
What’s been harder to perceive is a coherent Palestinian strategy to move beyond the immediate crisis. How could Palestinians claim agency?
The Palestinian leadership has long been seen as weak and divided. Mahmoud Abbas, the 88-year-old president of the Palestinian Authority, has little power in the West Bank and even less in Gaza. Sabri Saidam, a leader of Abbas’ Fatah party, told me in October that the party has lost influence because of its longstanding failure to deliver on hopes of peace with Israel. Palestinians have held no elections since 2006, when Fatah suffered disastrous defeats to Hamas, and there is no reason to assume they would do any better today.
The absence of clear strategic leadership puts Palestinians at an even greater disadvantage than would otherwise be the case. Granted, Israelis and Americans have their own strategic shortfalls. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, last heard on NPR in November, is often criticized as more of a short-term tactician than a strategist—although his endurance at or near the top of Israeli politics for decades might suggest that the lack of a strategy is itself a strategy, as I’ve written on NPR.
President Biden, like many of his predecessors, endorses the aspiration of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but has yet to persuade Netanyahu. In truth the Israeli leader has rebuffed Biden on a range of important issues, though the U.S. insists it’s had some influence.
Biden has not done an interview with NPR on any subject since 2019, but his national security advisor Jake Sullivan told me on February 16 that the U.S. has only so much influence. As he put it, the US is trying to “help Israel” while also “standing up for our principles,” and “that’s all we can do.”
Palestinians now hope to assert their own vision of the future. In an NPR interview—you can listen at the link below—Barghouti, the leader of a political party called the Palestinian National Initiative, described an effort to move forward. The Palestinian prime minister has resigned as a hoped-for step toward agreeing on an interim unity government—a single entity that would embrace multiple parties and assert what little power Palestinians have across both the West Bank and Gaza. These territories, already geographically separated, have been effectively under separate leadership since Hamas drove Fatah out of Gaza in 2007.
Barghouti said a unity government could restore ties between the West Bank and Gaza, and “prevent Netanyahu's plan to replace the Palestinian legitimate structures with a bunch of collaborators that work under his military occupation.”
Netanyahu phrases it differently, but has said he wants to drive Hamas out of power in Gaza and replace it with some kind of local government, while Israel’s military retains a right to strike targets there.
Netanyahu has also rejected the idea of a unified Palestinian government—for the very reason that Barghouti favors it. It would be a step closer to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, which Netanyahu also opposes.
Asked about this, Barghouti replied, “It doesn’t matter whether [Netanyahu] allows it or not. What matters is what we do ourselves.”
To achieve unity, various West Bank parties would have to reach an accommodation with Hamas, which has led Gaza and retains some popular support among Palestinians.
I asked if he was comfortable dealing with Hamas, the group that killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7.
“As much as the United States is comfortable dealing with Israel,” he shot back, noting tens of thousands killed in Gaza. “What's the difference?”
Barghouti said he accepts the idea of a two-state solution—meaning the continued existence of Israel alongside an independent Palestine. “But,” he added, “no sustainable peace will be there without Israel ending its occupation of West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and allowing Palestinians to practice their self-determination and having a state of their own.”
He acknowledged that Palestinians alone do not have the power to bring about such an outcome. But some, at least, would like to do what they can to speak with one voice.
Thanks for reading Differ We Must, my exploration of our modern-day differences. It’s a companion to Differ We Must, which tells Lincoln’s life story through his face-to-face meetings with people who disagreed with him. If you haven’t read it, I hope you’ll look it up.
Writing that history constantly made me think of the present; and present-day events constantly make me think of the book.
Just today a social media user pointed to a vital aspect of the Civil War: manpower. Lincoln gained advantage over the Confederacy by taking away their manpower—freeing enslaved laborers—and adding to Union manpower—enlisting many freedmen as soldiers. The social media user argued that the United States can do something similar, in a modern sense, by luring away engineering talent from China!
Differ We Must at my local bookstore
The NPR interview with Mustafa Barghouti
TYPO--> "he shot back, *nothing* tens of thousands killed in Gaza." ... Should say NOTING