Israel can still invade, make “incursions,” raid and kill people from the two movements in both areas any time it wants. It can impose border closures and block fuel and food supplies from reaching the Palestinian territories and prevent the movement of people.

The "Hamas military takeover," of an already suffocating land under Israeli siege is an exercise of self-destruction that would be totally absurd if it were not for the lives lost. Hamas's action, even with full acknowledgment of the unfair international political siege, has only served Israeli strategic goals. It has deepened the political divide and fragmentation of the Palestinian land and people. It has provided Israel a new pretext to strangle off Palestinians -- and even reinvade the Gaza Strip.

By forming a new cabinet, on his part, President Mahmoud Abbas has effectively institutionalized a dangerous and unprecedented division between the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. and Israeli announcement to back Abbas and tighten the noose on the Gaza Strip does nothing to promote a peace process but everything to accelerate the fragmentation of the Palestinians. The idea of talking to the “West Bank leadership” and isolating Hamas is preposterous. Yet it is in the hands of the Palestinians to take responsibility for the blunders of the past year.

Hamas's military “solution” of purging and executing Fatah security commanders has undermined the movement and dealt a severe blow to Palestinian unity. Hamas won the elections freely and fairly, and it has squandered its popular legitimacy by playing small and bloody. Fatah, on the other hand, has failed the Palestinians by not accepting its election defeat and by turning the whole process into a vacuous power struggle with Hamas.

The two movements’ main challenge now is to regain the confidence of the Palestinians. However, the international community has also to bear the responsibility for not accepting the Palestinian elections and taking part in a financial and political boycott that stifled the Palestinians and led them to despair. They would be complicit in preventing Palestinian freedom by continuing the game of deciding what Palestinians should not. This game has been instrumental in pitting besieged Palestinians against each other.

To deprive the Palestinians of their legitimate rights because the international community doesn't like one party's behavior is nothing short of criminal. Palestinians don't need crocodile tears at the internal bloodshed in Gaza. The Palestinian leadership is culprit and should be held accountable for its actions by its own people, for its dismal failure in maintaining Palestinian unity.

The ensuing division does not achieve statehood or freedom for Palestine. The U.S., Israel and the world have allowed themselves to believe that the current division provides an opportunity for peace, but it could offer the pretext for destroying Palestinian rights by using the status quo to impose new Bantustans as a “solution” to the heightening problem.