What Does the Supreme National Interest Mean for Palestinians? And How Can It Be Achieved?

The term "supreme national interest" is often touted by politicians and is frequently heard in discussions at all times and occasions. Each person uses it as a justification to promote what they consider appropriate, often influenced by partisan, factional, or personal interests, which may differ in their ideas, components, and external impacts. In order to achieve it - or specifically to impose each stream's own understanding - the question arises: Are all means permissible, meaning, does the end justify the means?

We learn in political science that the concept of supreme national interest is a collection of fundamental objectives and goals that the state - whether independent or under occupation - seeks to achieve for protection, ensuring survival, steadfastness, security, and sovereignty. It serves as the main guide for public policies and strategic decisions in all forums. National interests are prioritized into several levels, the most prominent of which are vital interests, which come first and include protecting sovereignty and defending the land against any external threat or occupation, as well as preserving the national cultural identity in terms of language, history, societal values, religion, and thought.

All of this plays a pivotal role in guiding matters, reflected in the formulation of foreign policy, which is the compass in determining the nature of alliances, treaties, and diplomatic and field positions taken on global issues. It also forms the basis for internal direction in terms of drafting laws, public policies, and development and economic plans. The details of the supreme national interest may change and evolve based on the variables of the phase, the political and economic circumstances, and local, regional, and international transformations. However, despite differing orientations, it is supposed that the supreme national interest represents a point of convergence and national consensus that transcends narrow partisan or factional interests, and even personal ones.

In the Palestinian case, the leadership often invokes the supreme national interest as a step to justify its various decisions, based on the importance of protecting the Palestinian entity represented by the national authority and previously by the Palestine Liberation Organization, in order to avoid a devastating clash with the occupation - as described by politicians - and to secure international support, managing a complex reality, considering these steps a national necessity to spare the people further calamities and to strengthen resilience with available tools, hoping to achieve independence. Thus the leadership insists on commitments and international agreements of the Palestine Liberation Organization and negotiation tracks, deeming them the least costly path to protect the national project from complete absorption and ensuring international recognition of the desired Palestinian state.

According to this political philosophy of the Palestinian leadership and its security and civil apparatuses, decisions are marketed under the pretext of the supreme national interest for the Palestinian people, especially those related to security coordination with the occupation authorities, or managing institutions as a tactical necessity to maintain the continuity of essential services for citizens, prevent economic collapse, and avoid chaos. They rely on international legitimacy decisions as a reference for their policies, claiming that winning global public opinion serves that interest in diplomatic, regional, and international forums. Often decisions are unilaterally taken or through presidential decrees under the guise of "state of emergency" and the necessity of fortifying the internal front against fragmentation in light of the political and geographical division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, without any consideration or notice to the angry public mood that rejects the leadership's policies. This has caused a crisis of trust and widened the gap between the base and the pyramid, without any reaction of equivalent size and impact commensurate with the continuous violations of the occupation authorities and their policies that negate agreements and understandings, along with their tools from settler gangs providing them information, coordinates, and technical and military support, leading to further destruction of Palestinian civil capabilities.

This raises the question: Where is the supreme national interest amid the escalation of Israeli violations? Many thought and political leaders among the Palestinian Arab people see a clear leadership vacuum, with the current leadership living an unprecedented crisis in terms of administration and legitimacy and being unable to manage the Palestinian crisis. They even show little concern for the simplest internal issues, which, if obstacles were removed, could reinforce resilience and confrontation, especially reorganizing the internal house and ending the division. The situation has reached a point where those calling for change are accused of stepping out of the national ranks and serving external agendas targeting the "supreme national interest"!! Despite the majority of those demanding change affirming their commitment to the importance and uniqueness of representation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the need for all Palestinians to participate in reform and renewing the legitimacy that has been crushed by aging, incapacity, and failure in management and confrontation, and to stop the monopolization of national decision-making, which has affected its popularity, diminishing it and leading to a loss of trust.

Perhaps the concept of supreme national interest for the sons of the Palestinian Arab people, in the current Palestinian situation with all its data, amid the dark tunnel into which the current leadership has entered and taken its people with it, may somewhat converge and, to a greater extent, conflict with what is studied in political science regarding the concept of supreme national interest!!

The supreme national interest of the Palestinian Arab people - if there exists a true will and sincere intentions to emerge from the dark tunnel and lead the people to safety - requires, before anything else: overcoming differences, prioritizing national concerns over factional or personal ones, and working together side by side to reach a unified national vision that leads to a single, unified national program based on common and agreed points among all Palestinian spectrums, overcoming points of disagreement. This would bridge the gap between the street and the leadership, even if it means competing in the upcoming elections with a single national list involving all shades of the Palestinian spectrum.

The Palestinian scene is extremely complicated and dangerous, necessitating a unified national action free of personal or factional concerns, abandoning preconceived positions, transcending wounds, and undoubtedly leading to the birth of a national leadership carrying the banner and taking upon itself the continuation of the journey, guiding the march without internal or external influences toward freedom and independence.