As Israel Tries to Bomb the Palestinian Spring Out of Existence, Could Egyptian Protesters be the Palestinians’ Only Hope?

As September arrives, there is an atmosphere of familiarity to the cycle of carnage following two weeks of Israeli bombardment of Gaza.  Following an August 18 attack in the Negev desert near Israel's southern border city of Eilat, the old power politics of the Middle East are reemerging while the Egyptian people are left to keep the promise of the Arab Spring alive.

With a United Nations vote to recognize a Palestinian state fast approaching, the road to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – the official representative body of the Palestinian people – becoming an internationally recognized government is being paved by Israeli bombs and Hamas' retaliatory rocket fire.

The PLO’s leaders stand poised to reap the prestige of a diplomatic upgrade while the reality of occupation intensifies on the ground. The Hamas government in Gaza, which has been widely criticized at home for its authoritarian rule, is again able to dominate the discourse of resistance instead of being a target of Palestinian opposition. Israel, too, stands to gain from a return to the cycle of violence and symbolic diplomatic gestures reminiscent of years past. Lately, evidence of everything that has changed over the past six months is hardly noticeable.

March 15 was the first major Palestinian response to the revolutions transforming Tunisia and Egypt and at first appeared to be a decisive turning point. “Today is the opening shot of a generational power clash, things won't be the same after,” leading Palestinian youth organizer Fadi Quran told me in Ramallah's central square during mass protests.

Collectively calling for the release of all political prisoners in the West Bank and Gaza and direct elections for the National Council of the PLO, a united youth struggle emerged across fractured borders and armed checkpoints. The political ramifications were immediately evident as the Palestinian Authority (PA), the West Bank administrative government of the PLO, and the Hamas government in Gaza made overtures at national political reconciliation.

The protests announced a “Palestinian Spring” focused on, Quran told me, a call by Palestinian youth organizations from the West Bank, Gaza, Israel and the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. With the goal of rejuvenating a divided Palestinian identity and transforming the liberation struggle, they called for political freedom, an end to the occupation, self-determination, social justice and the right of return for the 750,000 refugees Israel created in the 1948 war (called the Nakba or “catastrophe” by Palestinians) as well as their families. Within hours of our conversation, Palestinian Authority and Hamas security forces attacked Palestinian youth on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel also mobilized troops and lined the checkpoints and borders with soldiers. Still, it wasn't until the Nakba demonstrations in May (demanding Israel allow the right of return) and the anniversary of Israel's 1967 occupation in June that Israeli soldiers would open fire. At those demonstrations, where unarmed Palestinian youth flocked to the checkpoints of the West Bank, Gaza and Israel's borders with Lebanon and Syria, Israeli soldiers soaked the unity call in the blood of more than 20 Palestinians, in order to repress an emerging Palestinian protest movement on its borders.

The predictable cycle of violence following the Negev attack – which led to Israel’s air strikes on Gaza and retaliatory rocket fire into Israel -- has immeasurably aided the Israeli government. Pressed to respond to a mass middle class protest movement using the slogan “We don't care about security, we can't find housing,” Israel has found a Jewish nationalist rallying cry in a manageable conflict with Palestinians.