Palestinians Puzzled Why Israeli Unity Gov’ts Not Violently Divided

Such discourse has sparked confusion among Palestinians, whose only experience of a unity government to date involves gunfire, bombs, arrests, and trumped-up charges.

Ramallah, April 29 – Israeli politics continues to surprise Palestinian observers, researchers say, specifically the unfamiliar practice Israeli unity governments follow of not having its component factions oppose each other with protracted, deadly clashes.

Israeli leaders have formed national unity governments on a number of occasions, among them the early-to-mid-1980’s, when Menachem Begin of Likud and Shimon Peres of Labor rotated as Prime Minister. Currently, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud is attempting to assemble a coalition that does not include Labor, and Labor leaders have specifically spoken out against joining a unity government, but the prospect of such an alliance has been invoked by political figures across the spectrum ever since Likud won an unexpectedly strong electoral victory a month ago. Such discourse has sparked confusion among Palestinians, whose only experience of a unity government to date involves gunfire, bombs, arrests, trumped-up charges, and reciprocal accusations by rival factions of betraying the Palestinian people.

Hamas and Fatah, the two major political factions vying for leadership of the Palestinian Authority – and the Palestinian people as a whole – have repeatedly engaged in an on-again, off-again unity arrangement under which the disparate geographic territories of the Gaza Strip, under Hamas sway, and the autonomous areas of the West Bank, where Fatah reigns, are theoretically under one government. Despite brief periods of rapprochement and declarations of shared purpose, Fatah and Hamas remain at loggerheads over every major issue except adherence to the long-term goal of removing Israeli sovereignty from every inch of “Historic Palestine.” The tension is further exacerbated by the clan-based demographics of Palestinian political organizations, in which extended family loyalty trumps any larger political aims. In contrast, Israeli unity governments, even at their most troubled, have seldom, if ever, featured such deep and deadly divisions, leaving Palestinian observers to wonder whether Israel even knows what it is doing.

“A unity government is supposed to dance on the line between barely-contained hostility and outright civil war,” said Palestinian political analyst Khalil Shikaki. “The Zionists evidently haven’t learned that yet, which is why their political stability is in the toilet. As it is, they keep holding elections every few years instead of keeping the same man in power for at least a decade. That’s no way to run a government, unity or not.” He contrasted that tendency with Palestinian society, which has not held legislative elections in five years, nor a presidential election in more than ten. The only elections taking place involve student government at Palestinian universities, where members of the recently triumphant Hamas slate at Bir Zeit University now face arrest by Fatah police.

“It might be one of those deceptive Zionist uses of language, calling their arrangements ‘unity’ governments, or they might simply not know what a unity government is supposed to do,” wondered Shikaki. “We know they’re not stupid, so neither explanation seems to make sense.”

“But then,” he allowed, “they also have an entity called the Zionist Union, even though it is neither thing.”