Amidst the hurricanes sweeping the Arab region, the Palestinian cause and everything related to it seem to be in a state of deep slumber and outside the circle of interest. Indeed, the efforts deployed by the American secretary of state to resume the negotiations, the optimism shown by the head of the Palestinian authority towards the success of these efforts, the ongoing Israel blockade over the Gaza Strip, and the absence of any treatment for the Palestinian national division, do not seem to be echoed on the Arab street. This is true despite the continuation of the settlement activities and Israeli oppression at an escalating pace, and the fact that not one day goes by without news agencies carrying reports about the decisions to build additional settlement units, new arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank, and the deterioration of the situation in Gaza due the sporadic opening of the crossings from the Egyptian side and their extended closing from the Israeli side. This upsetting reality for the prevailing feeling of mobilization raises questions about Palestine's position, after it was long classified as the central cause of the Arab populations and was surrounded by an aura of sanctity. The distancing of the cause from political debate has pushed it away from reality and into the world of the occult. And instead of dealing with it as a daily issue managed by ordinary people, it was led towards a space with which political consideration is of no use. The paradox is that the sanctification of the cause rendered the political talk limited to the status of the Palestinian organizations. Hence, the conflict between Fatah and Hamas became the main object of discussion, preceded by the relationship between the Palestinian left and right, or the love-hate relationship between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Arab regimes. In the meantime, the tackling of the Palestinian cause as a political issue was handled by a limited number of cadres in the PLO. Consequently, Palestinian domestic policy reached the level that is currently seen in its dealing with the general cause. It became the job of the jobless, and not a cause related to the fates and interests of millions of Palestinians. And the neglect that is clear to all observers is not only the outcome of the "American-Israeli conspiracy," but also that of the bankruptcy affecting the Palestinian and Arab policies in approaching this cause. One could say that the transformations in the Arab world are so major that they caused the deferral of the Palestinian issue until the situation in the region settles down, and that the cause is still as important as it was during the 1960s and 1970s. Some might also claim there is a link between the diminished interest in the Palestinian cause and the existence of an American-Israeli plan to transfer the conflicts inside the Arab states and societies. This approach, in parallel to the attempts of its advocators to stress the central character of the cause, reveals – without the latter knowing it - that highly influential elements have infiltrated the overall Arab climate and contributed to the marginalization of the Palestinian cause. Among these elements is the collapse of the philosophy adopted by the Palestinian command, not since it chose to negotiate with Israel to achieve its goals, but since the PLO launched a unilateral and extremely violent perception of the cause, which failed to achieve the "Storm's promises" (as per the title of a poem by Mahmud Darwiche). Hence, there was no choice but to adopt an extremely peaceful course, which also failed to ensure the establishment of a state, in light of a prevailing illusion that Israel will offer it on a silver platter. Before this ongoing failure and the Palestinians' and Arabs' inability to convince the world that the settlement of the cause was linked to the vital international interests, the Palestinian cause became limited to an enclave in Gaza, parts of the West Bank, and the misery camps abroad. At the same time, a young singer such as Muhammad Assaf started to embody the hopes of the Palestinians more than the fighting sectarian lords. It is needless to say at this point that the rejectionists are serious about liberating Jerusalem, but only after they have completed their mission in Al-Quseir, Homs, and Rif Damascus...
