The National Fate Amidst Internal Chaos and International Guardianship

Despite the Trump administration's clear bias towards Israel, the American president seems eager at this stage to succeed in his plan to stop the war, especially after realizing that the continuation of the chaos threatens what he considers his "most prominent diplomatic achievement." The U.S. administration, which sent a delegation to Tel Aviv starting with "Witkov and Kushner", followed by Vice President "Vance" and the Secretary of State, is making efforts to contain Netanyahu's momentum and curb his ambitions, determined to prevent the collapse of the agreement that is supposed to be the launch point for the post-war phase.

These visits reflect President Trump's administration's desire to regulate Israeli domestic policy and prevent the collapse of the ceasefire. Israeli media described this intense American presence sarcastically as a form of "political guardianship" over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In contrast, Israel continues to violate the agreement daily, using the issue of the corpses as a "pretext" to justify not proceeding with the commitments required of it in the first phase, while continuing to close the Rafah crossing and preventing the flow of humanitarian aid and shelters. With each step of this nature, it becomes clear that Netanyahu is not seeking genuine calm, but rather is entrenching new security realities that allow him to control Gaza, especially in the context of Kushner's explicit hint that upcoming reconstruction projects would be carried out in "areas outside Hamas control", indicating intentions to divide the sector into varying loyalties and management, each overseen by a "local" recipe under regional or international supervision, which means creating a parallel political reality that entrenches division indefinitely.

The Palestinian Void and the Risks of International Guardianship

Hamas, despite confirming its firm stance of not participating in the administration of the sector, and its announcement of agreement with factions on a formula known as the Community Support Committee, has not shown, along with the factions that recently met in Cairo, the necessary seriousness to highlight the need for comprehensive national consensus in response to those serious challenges by forming a national unity government, using President Abbas's rejection of this formula, which enjoyed national and popular consensus, as an excuse.

However, this position, in its practical repercussions, deepens the political void and leaves the field open to ambiguous arrangements that could lead to a disguised international guardianship over Gaza. The absence, or sidelining, of any serious Palestinian initiative towards a unified national consensus government, as per the Basic Law of the Authority, enhances the space for Israeli maneuvering, not only to isolate Gaza but to reshape its relationship with the West Bank in a manner that reproduces geographical and political fragmentation, facilitates annexation, expands settlement activities, and intensifies the daily climbing terrorism of settlers supported directly by the occupying government in terms of armament and protection.

Amidst this scene, and what it needs for solidarity, President Mahmoud Abbas surprises the Palestinian people and its political and social forces with a constitutional announcement authorizing his deputy with presidential powers in the event of a vacancy, thereby nullifying the constitutional necessity of authorizing the President of the National Council, which despite the controversy surrounding it, involves a legislative approach due to the absence of the legislative council.

This recent step has sparked widespread debate about the timing and implications, as it solidified the impression of internal deadlock, which could still represent a necessary consensus moment to rekindle hope in shouldering responsibility from all parties to face the existential challenges facing the Palestinian issue, and to establish an effective, legitimate, unified authority through a national government overseeing the unification of the homeland and its institutions, based on priorities determined by national consensus in preparation for holding elections within an agreed timeframe, as an alternative to decrees that deepen the gap of division at a moment when Palestinians need the utmost unity and adherence to higher national interests, while rejecting factional and narrow selfish interests.

What is happening today on the Palestinian scene can only be described as political chaos, which could divert attention from the strategic requirements of deepening Israel's international isolation, pushing it towards ending the occupation and enabling Palestinians to determine their national fate. Rather, with the help of the Trump administration, the occupying government may succeed in returning to the international scene against a Palestinian party mired in its division and incapacity.

This equation is not fate. Palestinians can overturn it whenever they have a unifying national vision that redefines the supreme interest based on the unity of geography, the political system, national fate, and the status of citizens in this vision.

The agreement to stop the war, and even relief, shelter, and reconstruction, however important these may be, will confine the Palestinian fate to mere humanitarian solutions unless they are part of a clear liberation project, and there is no future for any local authority unless it stems from the will of the people and expresses their rights to freedom, justice, and equality.

The Need for a Unifying National Current

What is required today is not a new formal dialogue between the factions, but the implementation of what has been agreed upon, which necessitates not only a popular block or a pressing rescue front to achieve it, but also serious work to give birth to a broad popular current that liberates society from divisions and from a culture of dependency, and restores the essence of the national project as a project of freedom, justice, and accountability.

A current that affirms that Palestine's status in the human conscience is not a bargaining chip nor merely a security item, but the very essence of justice that cannot be traded for grants or projects.

Such a current, with its democratic national identity, especially from young and female leaders who have been deprived for two decades of political participation, and alongside all who have been harmed by the division and factional interests that are almost ripping apart national fate, should carry a dual mission: continuing the struggle to end the occupation and bring Israeli war criminals to international justice, as an integral part of a universal justice current that Palestine has become its compass, while at the same time holding accountable through elections all those who contributed to marginalizing the issue or weakening it.

For accountability is not merely a legal demand, but a national and moral duty to protect Palestine's standing and its liberation project from wastage.

It is time to realize that the continuation of chaos and factionalism serves only the plans of the occupying government and contributes to dismantling its isolation, and that the safe path to face these challenges lies in rebuilding the unity of national will within and outside the political system, and what it requires to start serious steps to crystallize a liberating popular current free from the factional mentality, with Palestine and its freedom and the justice of its cause, and full equality among all its citizens as its compass; an organized and proactive current capable of turning this great tragedy into a historical opportunity to end the occupation and restore Palestine's human meaning in the global conscience that has stood by its people, and for this current to be an integral part of the universal current of freedom and justice.