Palestinian fortune at its nadir

Indeed, the unmatched power of Israel's lobby in the United States assured American support even in Israeli enterprises that did not serve the national interest of the United States. It was apparent from the way the most powerful legislators in the world were seen beholden to Ehud Olmert's every idea, observation and suggestion and the resonance they produced. It is not for nothing that Washington vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions concerning Israel since 1982 and it gave Israel 'wide latitude' in dealing with the Palestinians to an extent that 'it becomes complicit in the crimes perpetrated against the Palestinians'.

After succeeding Ariel Sharon his Kadima Party mentor, now lying in comma, Ehud Olmert obviously hopes to translate into reality Sharon's Machiavellian vision of imposing a victor's peace on the Palestinians while grudgingly believing in a 'two state solution' of the whole crisis. Ehud Olmert had been clever enough to remind his American host that the annexation of land that he plans to carry out in the name of 'realignment' while implementing his unilateral disengagement and the settlements' convergence plan was implicit in President Bush's letter to Sharon in 2004. The letter conceded that the major Israeli settlements were already 'facts on the ground'. Ehud Olmert's US visit only reinforced those assurances while he also won a conditional US endorsement for his unilateral disengagement and consolidation plan in what the Israeli leader called in Likudist tradition -- the biblical Judea and Samaria, the Hebrew name of the West Bank.

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The only condition given to Olmert is of going through a mock motion of pursuing an internationally preferred 'roadmap for peace' by holding a foredoomed dialogue with the PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The Israeli leaders have since started vaguely referring to continuing relevance of the West-sponsored road map but actually turned to securing US approval for their plan to determine the final borders of Israel unilaterally through an annexation of another vital chunk of the West Bank.

This approval was vital because the diabolical plan inherited by Olmert from his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, will sever the remaining Palestine into as many as four cantons and take Jerusalem out of the equation forever.

In a so called dialogue with the PA when Ehud Olmert will offer these cantons to a compliant Mahmoud Abbas -- who was already an US-Israel choice for peace partnership even when Arafat was alive -- he cannot afford to turn it down even if he knows that such an offer is a kiss of death to all hopes of a viable Palestinian state. By accepting the offer the Palestinians will sign on to a life of perennial subordination to Israel.

But what alternative can they really turn to? While Ehud Olmert proceeds singlemindedly to realise the script of Sharon by word and spirit the Palestinian leadership is deeply divided. Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah has been exerting pressure on the Hamas to recognise Israel and renounce violence. The Hamas are not prepared to yield as a matter of principle. Both Hamas and Fatah are even physically clashing. The international pressure is already there to starve Hamas government to submission. There is also synchronised decisions to bring about a virtual collapse the Hamas administration in the PA through relentless economic siege.

Palestinian history has always been turbulent and gory. But never before had they been in a dire strait as of now. It is time that the Arab/Muslim world, the Arab League and the OIC wake up to the fact that the clock is ticking away. Don't they have a moral duty to offer at least a diplomatic defence before the Palestinians' fate is finally sealed?

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.