Palestine: Concentrate on Leadership First, Negotiations Second

With negotiations set to begin today in Washington between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, members of the Palestinian community are calling on their leaders to resolve internal disputes. In an interview with Reuters, influential Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti emphasized the need for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and the importance of this reconciliation to the peace process: “The problem is not in the principle of negotiations, which we accept, but that without a popular foundation and action on the ground which supports negotiations, they will not reach any results.” This feeling is echoed by Hani Almadhoum who writes that he is not surprised by the “cynicism” of the Palestinian people: “…in the past five years, when was the last time you heard of a Palestinian leader giving a key speech…the kind of speech that inspired a national dialogue?…I cannot remember such a day…Such banality is dangerous.” Almadhoum goes on to describe the governments in both Gaza and the West Bank as “managers”, capable of hanging on, but not much else: “…managers worry about their respective departments. Leaders worry about the whole unit. We need both decent leaders and wise managers to go hand in hand in an increasingly complex and volatile political and economical (sic) situation.”