A roundup of commentary from Arab newspapers October 2.
PLO must reinforce rule of law
The Palestinian Al Quds, a Jerusalem-based daily, said that the Palestinian clashes once again show that "we have reached an unenviable desperate stage where there are those who insist on violating the red lines by shedding Palestinian blood with Palestinian weapons."
The paper, which describes itself as independent, said that the confrontations in Gaza and Ramallah should ring alarm bells for both the Hamas government and the presidency, led by Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, to accelerate efforts to contain the tension between the two sides and work seriously to prevent their repetition by working toward finding a solution to end the blockade.
"It is time to end all demonstrations of force and unfortunate clashes, which harm our people and their struggle for justice, freedom, and independence," it stressed.
The mainstream paper's editorial said that it was time for all parties to take responsibility to save their people from their suffering, not increase it. "It is also time for the Palestine Liberation Organization, our people's sole and legitimate representative, to assume its role in this crisis ... That is, if we believe in the rule of law and democracy," it said.
Beware of civil war
The London-based Al Quds Al Arabi warned that if inter-Palestinian fighting continued to expand, it could lead to a civil war that may not be controlled.
The independent Palestinian-owned daily said that Sunday's crisis escalated when the official Palestinian security personnel took to the streets to protest against not being paid for seven months.
In the rest of the world, the daily said, the security forces' job is to maintain disciplined order, to protect the lives of citizens, enforce the law and prevent chaos, "but it seems the Palestinian security forces were established according to totally different rules."
The paper accused Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas of having decided to put the security services under his direct jurisdiction, "turning the forces into a militia for a ruling party, not a security force to protect the interests of all citizens," adding that Abbas also added new "presidential guards" trained by Jordan and Egypt and armed by the United States with Israel's approval.
The daily, distributed in many Arab capitals, said, however, that it does not absolve Hamas from responsibility for failing to act wisely, saying that the Hamas interior minister's decision to deploy the police force in the streets was bound to lead to bloody clashes.
Nevertheless, Abbas carries the bulk of blame for the deterioration and clashes, it said, because he was responsible for using weapons during the strikes against the (Hamas) government and incited citizens to join the protests.
The paper argued that the Palestinian security services were like the rest of the Palestinian people, victims of an "American-Israeli scheme, which refuses to surrender to the [Palestinian] election [results] and wants to take revenge from every Palestinian."
Palestinians should hold dialogue
Qatar's ASharq said in its editorial that Palestinian fighting is difficult to believe, especially when it is exactly what Israel and America are hoping for to achieve their plans.
The paper urged the Palestinians to think together on how to lift the sanctions against their people and strengthen their national unity to end their crisis.
This can be achieved by returning to dialogue, controlling the security chaos, activating the role of the PLO, and stripping the party characteristics from the government and Palestinian Authority, the pro-government daily proposed.
Accordingly, the paper said, a national unity government should be formed, taking into consideration Israel's "exploitation of the security deterioration to implement its threats to carry out wide scale military attacks in the Gaza Strip."
The daily said that it did not believe that it would be wise for Hamas to abandon its principles and submit to the American-Israeli conditions in recognizing the previous agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israelis to form a national unity government.
The "series of concessions" that Israel has obtained from the Palestinians since the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords did not bring the Palestinians closer to achieving their legitimate national rights, the paper opined, and concluded that recognition from Hamas will not change anything.
Shameful Ramadan day for Palestinians
Jordan's Al Ghad said in a commentary that fighting among Palestinians in Gaza Sunday and the skirmishes between Fatah and Hamas in the past nine months, in which people were killed and injured, cannot be explained or justified.
The independent daily said that Gaza experienced Sunday a "shameful Ramadan day" for Fatah, Hamas, and the PLO. It added that Gaza, which it said complains of a blockade, proved that it has fierce fighters, modern weapons, and equipment, insisting that they were capable of killing and injuring other Palestinians, burning cars, and making arrests while fasting.
The mass-circulation paper insisted that such harmful actions toward the Palestinian cause were contained in a mere power struggle between those who want to negotiate (with Israel) and those who do not, adding that they have no right to carry weapons against each other.
"And the irony is that all sides have stopped the resistance [against Israeli occupation]," it said, adding that those who want to negotiate are not doing so, and those who want to resist are also not resisting.
The paper said: "Those poor Palestinian people in Gaza - the enemy is striking, the fighters in the government and authority are fighting each other, with Palestinian blood on both sides, while Zionists are joyful."
End the blockade
Egypt's Al Gumhuriya said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is launching a new Middle East tour in an effort to revive the peace process while Palestinians are being killed by Israeli attacks. The visit also comes at the tails of "unfortunate" inter-Palestinian fighting.
The semi-official daily's editorial blamed the Palestinian in-fighting on the "unjust international blockade" on the Palestinian territories.
It said that the repercussions of the sanctions have directly affected the Palestinian political scene, leading to serious differences between the forces who see no other choice but to "surrender to the American-Israeli conditions and the forces holding on to the principles."
The paper said that ending the blockade should be the first objective in reviving the peace process. It added that no one in the Middle East believes that the United States wants peace while it "besieges" the Palestinians and incites Europe and the rest of the world to further tighten the blockade.
Review of Arab Editorials
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