The upcoming meeting of the secretaries-general in Cairo and the need for a different approach

The upcoming meeting of the general secretaries of the Palestinian national and Islamic action factions, which is expected to take place in Cairo at the end of this month, differs from the previous meetings and attempts to end the division, achieve national unity, and agree on a comprehensive Palestinian national strategy. They and their policies with a balance of gold.

This makes the misreading of this context and the lack of agreement in this meeting on a comprehensive Palestinian national strategy, and the failure to achieve Palestinian unity, the achievement of which is at its highest level a condition for achieving the minimum level of Palestinian rights, an argument for the two communities and evidence of their lack of appreciation for the importance of the moment when the Palestinian strategic environment is witnessing locally, regionally and internationally, radical transformations that entail a number of opportunities for the Palestinians, perhaps equal in size to the threats they entail.

Where success was not the share of the approaches that were employed in the previous attempts and meetings, as two approaches were employed in these attempts: the first sought to agree on all the details before going to general elections, and the second was based on starting with the Palestinian general elections first, and then agreeing on the details under the dome of the elected parliament.

Despite the relevance of the two approaches, neither of them achieved the desired goal, and the disorientation remained the same. Therefore, this article proposes a different approach that begins with what is not disputed by the Palestinians, which is here the Palestinian national security, in terms of the concept, goals and objectives, and here some may argue that the disagreement over the means and methods of achieving national security, may backfire and deepen the Palestinians’ predicament and increase their division and disorientation that they are in.

In order to avoid the Palestinian people being held hostage to disagreement and disagreement over means and methods, and to keep them forever in the predicament and disorientation in which they are now living, and in order to cut off those who try to steal their dream, the need increases to develop a general framework for Palestinian national security, from which emerges what this article will call (the Palestinian national security equation).

In this regard, Hussein Agha and Ahmed Sameh Al-Khalidi argued in the introduction to their book (A General Framework for a Doctrine of Palestinian National Security), which was published by the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy (Muwatin) in 2006, by saying, “The situation of the Palestinians is still critical. With Israel at times, and their commitment to the rules of negotiation with it at other times. Their strategic horizon is unclear, as it ranges from a comprehensive final settlement that includes the establishment of an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state, and a costly and protracted struggle that does not bear the promise of progress towards the goals of independence and liberation. Between these two extremes there are many possible endings, each of which carries its own results and consequences.

In such a vague horizon, Agha and Khalidi add, "the importance of crystallizing a general structure for Palestinian national security emerges as an important tool for framing and arranging Palestinian strategic and political priorities. Such a framework, whether adopted publicly or tacitly agreed upon, would be a means to express the Palestinians' security needs, a way to ward off their fears, and a mechanism to help them achieve their goals."

In fact, there were several calls by other Palestinians to develop a framework such as that called for by researchers Hussein and Ahmed, and there were also modest attempts in this regard by those appointed as Palestinian national security advisers, as well as by some non-governmental organizations (NGO), and by law specialists, especially in the recent attempt to develop an informal draft of the constitution for the State of Palestine, which I believe is the best of all attempts despite its importance, but none of these attempts resulted in developing an equation for Palestinian national security, neither publicly nor implicitly. Which is worth looking into and addressing the causes.

And if the situation of the Palestinians today is compared to what it was in the year 2006, it can easily be asserted that it is more critical politically, economically, security and socially, which makes the development of the “Palestinian national security equation” a higher national priority, especially since it has become clear to the youngest Palestinians that the settlement and negotiations did not lead to an independent state as desired by the Palestinians, despite their achievements of strategic weight in this field, such as the transformation of the organization’s status into a non-full member state in the United Nations according to the resolution No. (19/67) issued by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2012, which allowed Palestine to join the institutions of the United Nations, especially the International Criminal Court, despite the international organization’s recognition of the Palestinian plight and its commemoration of the anniversary of the Nakba in accordance with Resolution issued by the United Nations General Assembly No. (A/RES/77/23) in the year 2022,

It also became clear to them that the armed resistance did not liberate an inch of the land and did not lift the siege on Gaza, according to what Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri said in a rare audio recording made in 2020, where Al-Arouri added in this recording that the settlement project did not advance, just as the resistance project did not progress either, and the only project that advances is the occupation project!!!

It is true that the situation of the Palestinians is still critical, as they are still under occupation, siege, oppression, killing and displacement, as happened recently in the camp and governorate of Jenin and before that Nablus, Tulkarem, Jericho, Bethlehem and Azza, and they are still in exile and diaspora, and their independent state is still not behind the doors, but on the other hand, with their steadfastness and steadfastness on their land and their insistence on achieving their national goals and aspirations, they have brought the Western Zionist colonial project to the brink of failure and the end, as the lack of Insight is the only one who does not see this truth, and in order for the Palestinians, especially the future generations, to be able to declare victory over this project, they must control their methods and means with a balance of gold, which is provided only by the Palestinian national security equation, on one side of which stands the national capabilities of the people, and on the other side stands the national aims, purposes and objectives, and the means and methods mediate them.