PALESTINIANS:Palestinian dreams of a non-violent path to a homeland have been shattered this week, writes Michael Jansen

CHIEF PALESTINIAN negotiator Ahmed Korei said yesterday that so-far fruitless negotiations with Israel had been suspended because of the aerial blitz on Gaza.

"There are no negotiations and there is no way there could be negotiations while there are attacks against us," he said.

The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority's move followed Monday's decision by Damascus to put on hold Turkish-mediated peace talks with Israel. Mr Korei's words reflected the sentiments of most Palestinians who regard Israel's latest attack on Gaza as being directed against the entire Palestinian people and their aspiration for a homeland in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Hamas's failure to respond to Israel's raids with the barrage of 200-300 rockets which Israeli planners predicted, deepens the Palestinian feeling of helplessness and strengthens Palestinian unity in the face of Israel's overwhelming force.

Israel's determination to "wage all-out war" against Hamas and to "change the situation on the ground in Gaza" reminds Palestinians everywhere of Israel's 2002 operation to reoccupy the West Bank and crush the Palestinian Authority's presence there.

During that campaign then Palestinian president Yasser Arafat was imprisoned and bombarded in his compound in Ramallah while Israeli troops, tanks and planes levelled Palestinian police stations, administrative buildings, factional offices, cultural centres and other infrastructure. The police were a particular target.

The West Bank headquarters and neighbourhood posts were demolished and many policemen killed, as they have been in Gaza during this assault.

Now as then, the police are recruited from the general population. In Gaza, where unemployment is acute, it could be an advantage to be a member of Hamas to secure recruitment but many young men are likely to join Hamas to get preferment.

In spite of the toll of this assault, there will be many applications for positions once Israel ends its assault.

The Palestinian Authority's police force and administrative apparatus have still not recovered from Israel's 2002 campaign. The lightly armed police, who are being trained under US auspices and deployed in limited numbers with Israeli permission, are seen by many Palestinians as Israeli surrogates. Therefore, they do not have the respect enjoyed by the force created by Arafat after he returned to the Palestinian territories in 1994.

Israel's war aim, say Palestinian analysts, is to assassinate or drive underground the Hamas leadership so, like the Palestinian Authority in 2002, the movement is decapitated. By striking the civilian police, Israel, they argue, destroys law and order imposed by Hamas when it seized control of the Strip in June 2007.

Since then Hamas has stopped factional clashes and ended clan bullying and kidnapping, a major problem when Fatah was in charge. By taking out the interior ministry and other administrative offices, Israel seeks to cut off Gazans from the de facto Hamas government led by prime minister Ismail Haniyeh. By bombing the Islamic University, Israel intended to show Hamas that its key cultural asset can be demolished.

The overall Israeli objective is, Palestinians argue, to crush all resistance to Israel's occupation and to force those who rule Gaza to cooperate with Israel as does the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority which, under President Mahmoud Abbas, has renounced violence as a means to end the Israeli occupation.

However, many Palestinians agree with Arafat's actions when he steadfastly refused to abjure the armed struggle. They believe "Israel only understands force" and argue that the first intifada, 1987-93, which compelled Israel to sign the Oslo Accord providing for Israeli withdrawal from the lands occupied in 1967, proved that the application of force can achieve results.

Therefore, the call by Hamas and Lebanon's Hizbullah for a "third intifada" is likely to resonate with young Palestinians frustrated with their circumscribed lives, joblessness, penury and lack of a political horizon.