Abir Dandis, the mother of the two girls who were murdered in the Negev town of Al-Fura’a last week, couldn't find a police officer to listen to her warnings, neither in Arad nor in Ma’ale Adumim. Both police stations operate in areas where Israel wants to gather the Bedouin into permanent communities, against their will, in order to clear more land for Jewish communities. The dismissive treatment Dandis received shows how the Bedouin are considered simply to be lawbreakers by their very nature. But as a resident of the West Bank asking for help for her daughters, whose father was Israeli, Dandis faced the legal-bureaucratic maze created by the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinian police is not allowed to arrest Israeli civilians. It must hand suspects over to the Israel Police. The Palestinian police complain that in cases of Israelis suspected of committing crimes against Palestinian residents, the Israel Police tend not to investigate or prosecute them.

In addition, the town of Al-Azaria, where Dandis lives, is in Area B, under Palestinian civilian authority and Israeli security authority. According to the testimony of Palestinian residents, neither the IDF nor the Israel Police has any interest in internal Palestinian crime even though they have both the authority and the obligation to act in Area B.

The Palestinian police are limited in what it can do in Area B. Bringing in reinforcements or carrying weapons in emergency situations requires coordination with, and obtaining permission from, the IDF. If Dandis fears that the man who murdered her daughters is going to attack her as well, she has plenty of reason to fear that she will not receive appropriate, immediate police protection from either the Israelis or the Palestinians.

Dandis told Jack Khoury of Haaretz that the Ma’ale Adumim police referred her to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Coordination and Liaison Committee. Theoretically, this committee (which is subordinate to the Civil Affairs Ministry) is the logical place to go for such matters. Its parallel agency in Israel is the Civilian Liaison Committee (which is part of the Coordination and Liaison Administration - a part of the Civil Administration under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories).

In their meetings, they are supposed to discuss matters such as settlers’ complaints about the high volume of the loudspeakers at mosques or Palestinians’ complaints about attacks by settlers. But the Palestinians see the Liaison Committee as a place to submit requests for permission to travel to Israel, and get the impression that its clerks do not have much power when faced with their Israeli counterparts. In any case, the coordination process is cumbersome and long.

The Palestinian police has a family welfare unit, and activists in Palestinian women’s organizations say that in recent years, its performance has improved. But, as stated, it has no authority over Israeli civilians and residents. Several non-governmental women’s groups also operate in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and women in similar situations approach them for help. The manager of one such organization told Haaretz that Dandis also fell victim to this confusing duplication of procedures and laws. Had Dandis approached her, she said, she would have referred her to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which has expertise in navigating Israel’s laws and authorities.

John Kerry revealed his long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East on Sunday, hinging on a $4bn (£2.6bn) investment in the Palestinian private sector.

The US secretary of state, speaking at the World Economic Forum on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea, told an audience including Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that an independent Palestinian economy is essential to achieving a sustainable peace.

Speaking under the conference banner "Breaking the Impasse", Kerry announced a plan that he promised would be "bigger, bolder and more ambitious" than anything since the Oslo accords, more than 20 years ago.

Tony Blair is to lead a group of private sector leaders in devising a plan to release the Palestinian economy from its dependence on international donors. The initial findings of Blair's taskforce, Kerry boasted, were "stunning", predicting a 50% increase in Palestinian GDP over three years, a cut of two-thirds in unemployment rates and almost double the Palestinian median wage. Currently, 40% of the Palestinian economy is supplied by donor aid.

Kerry assured Abbas that the economic plan was not a substitute for a political solution, which remains the US's "top priority".

Peres, who had taken the stage just minutes before, also issued a personal plea to his Palestinian counterpart to return to the negotiations.

"Let me say to my dear friend President Abbas," Peres said, "Should we really dance around the table? Lets sit together. You'll be surprised how much can be achieved in open, direct and organised meetings."

Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use. Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops.

“All the shops are closed. I’m the only one open. This used to be the best place,” said 64-year-old Mustafa Sunocret, selling vegetables out of a small storefront in the marketplace near his family’s home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Amidst the brightly coloured scarves, clothes and carpets, ceramic pottery and religious souvenirs filling the shops of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, Palestinian merchants are struggling to keep their businesses alive.

Faced with worsening health problems, Sunocret told IPS that he cannot work outside of the Old City, even as the cost of maintaining his shop, with high electricity, water and municipal tax bills to pay, weighs on him.

“I only have this shop,” he said. “There is no other work. I’m tired.”

Abed Ajloni, the owner of an antiques shop in the Old City, owes the Jerusalem municipality 250,000 Israeli shekels (68,300 U.S. dollars) in taxes. He told IPS that almost every day, the city’s tax collectors come into the Old City, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, to pressure people there to pay.

“It feels like they’re coming again to occupy the city, with the soldiers and police,” Ajloni, who has owned the same shop for 35 years, told IPS. “But where can I go? What can I do? All my life I was in this place.”

He added, “Does Jerusalem belong to us, or to someone else? Who’s responsible for Jerusalem? Who?”

Illegal annexation

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in 1967. In July 1980, it passed a law stating that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. But Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and subsequent application of Israeli laws over the entire city remain unrecognised by the international community.

Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory – along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights – and Palestinian residents of the city are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Jerusalem has historically been the economic, political and cultural centre of life for the entire Palestinian population. But after decades languishing under destructive Israeli policies meant to isolate the city from the rest of the Occupied Territories and a lack of municipal services and investment, East Jerusalem has slipped into a state of poverty and neglect.

“After some 45 years of occupation, Arab Jerusalemites suffer from political and cultural schizophrenia, simultaneously connected with and isolated from their two hinterlands: Ramallah and the West Bank to their east, West Jerusalem and Israel to the west,” the International Crisis Group recently wrote.

Israeli restrictions on planning and building, home demolitions, lack of investment in education and jobs, construction of an eight-foot-high separation barrier between and around Palestinian neighbourhoods and the creation of a permit system to enter Jerusalem have all contributed to the city’s isolation.

Formal Palestinian political groups have also been banned from the city, and between 2001-2009, Israel closed an estimated 26 organisations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation headquarters in Jerusalem, the Orient House and the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce.

Extreme poverty

Israel’s policies have also led to higher prices for basic goods and services and forced many Palestinian business owners to close shop and move to Ramallah or other Palestinian neighbourhoods on the other side of the wall. Many Palestinian Jerusalemites also prefer to do their shopping in the West Bank, or in West Jerusalem, where prices are lower.

While Palestinians constitute 39 percent of the city’s population today, almost 80 percent of East Jerusalem residents, including 85 percent of children, live below the poverty line.

“How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t control your resources? How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t have any control of your borders?” said Zakaria Odeh, director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, of “this kind of fragmentation, checkpoints, closure”.

“Without freedom of movement of goods and human beings, how could you develop an economy?” he asked.

“You can’t talk about independent economy in Jerusalem or the West Bank or in all of Palestine without a political solution. We don’t have a Palestinian economy; we have economic activities. That’s all we have,” Odeh told IPS.

Israel’s separation barrier alone, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), has caused a direct loss of over one billion dollars to Palestinians in Jerusalem, and continues to incur 200 million dollars per year in lost opportunities.

Israel’s severing and control over the Jerusalem-Jericho road – the historical trade route that connected Jerusalem to the rest of the West Bank and Middle East – has also contributed to the city’s economic downturn.

Separation of Jerusalem from West Bank

Before the First Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”) began in the late 1980s, East Jerusalem contributed approximately 14 to 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). By 2000, that number had dropped to less than eight percent; in 2010, the East Jerusalem economy, compared to the rest of the OPT, was estimated at only seven percent.

“Economic separation resulted in the contraction in the relative size of the East Jerusalem economy, its detachment from the remaining OPT and the gradual redirection of East Jerusalem employment towards the Israeli labour market,” the U.N. report found.

Decades ago, Israel adopted a policy to maintain a so-called “demographic balance” in Jerusalem and attempt to limit Palestinian residents of the city to 26.5 percent or less of the total population.

To maintain this composition, Israel built numerous Jewish-Israeli settlements inside and in a ring around Jerusalem and changed the municipal boundaries to encompass Jewish neighbourhoods while excluding Palestinian ones.

It is now estimated that 90,000 Palestinians holding Jerusalem residency rights live on the other side of the separation barrier and must cross through Israeli checkpoints in order to reach Jerusalem for school, medical treatment, work, and other services.

“Israel is using all kinds of tools to push the Palestinians to leave; sometimes they are visible, and sometimes invisible tools,” explained Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER).

Al-Hammouri told IPS that at least 25 percent of the 1,000 Palestinian shops in the Old City were closed in recent years as a result of high municipal taxes and a lack of customers. “Taxation is an invisible tool…as dangerous as revoking ID cards and demolishing houses,” he said. “Israel will use this as pressure and as a tool in the future to confiscate these shops and properties.”

Harvard is a one of the most respected universities in the world. It is especially renowned for its academic excellence and sound scholarly traditions. However, Harvard's good name is being tarnished by the presence on its campus of a certified war criminal who is believed to have been responsible for the murder and maiming of thousands of innocent men, women and children in the Middle East .

The reported attendance of the former Israeli Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, on a Harvard Elite study program, does besmirch the reputation of this school which claims to be guided by ethical principles.

I realize, as do many Americans, including some conscientious Harvard professors, that the general discourse in the United States , is immensely influenced by the powerful Zionist media as well as by the scandalously powerful Israeli lobbies, such as AIPAC.

However, Harvard should know better, and if ordinary Americans can be forgiven for their ignorance about Israel 's criminal behavior and racism, Harvard has no excuse.

But in case the Harvard administration is not aware of Halutz's criminal credentials, here is a brief reminder.

As Commander of the Israeli Air Force and later Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, Dan Halutz instructed Israeli forces, including the air force, to indiscriminately bomb Lebanese and Palestinian population centers, causing the death of thousands of civilians.

Halutz instructed Israeli pilots to bomb homes, hospitals, colleges, ambulances, airports, refineries, gas stations, schools, roads and power stations. The atrocities committed under his command were condemned worldwide as "war crimes."

In 2002, Halutz, then commander of the Israeli air-force, gave instructions to drop one-ton bombs on an apartment building in downtown Gaza , killing 16 civilians, including 11 children. Halutz never expressed remorse for the pornographic killing. Instead, he told the Israeli media that "I sleep well at night" and "have a clear conscience."

Moreover, during the Palestinian Aqsa uprising against the Israeli occupation, Halutz adopted a policy of extra-judicial executions of Palestinian political and resistance activists. The harvest of this manifestly criminal policy was the brutal death of thousands of people, many of whom, it was later proven, were totally innocent.

Halutz also instructed Israeli soldiers to shoot Palestinian children and civilians knowingly and deliberately whenever the soldiers thought that the civilians posed the slightest threat to their safety. It is believed that as many as a thousand Palestinian children and minors were killed as a result of this haphazard policy.

A classical example of this murderous mode of operation was the murder of an 11-year-old school girl from Rafah, Iman al Hams, who was brutally murdered by an Israeli army soldier in 2004 as she was walking to her school.

The soldier, having shot the girl several times, then proceeded to verify the kill by shooting her from a close distance twenty more times.

Far from regretting the grisly crime, Halutz eventually instructed an Israeli military tribunal to give the killer financial compensations amounting to tens of thousands of dollars as punitive damages.

In June, 2006, following the capture by Palestinian guerillas of an Israeli soldier, Halutz ordered an all-out military campaign against the Gaza Strip. During the bloody campaign, Israeli warplanes and artillery wantonly attacked Palestinian homes and neighborhoods, annihilating entire families.

Similarly, the Israeli air force destroyed the only power station in Gaza last year, causing death and misery to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, including neonatal babies who died because their incubators stopped working following the power stoppage.

This is, of course, in addition to the policy of shooting innocent Palestinians, such as women on their way to hospital, colleges students on their way to school and workers and other ordinary people at roadblocks and checkpoints.

And in Lebanon , Halutz committed even more horrible war crimes. Indeed, toward the end of the war of last year, he ordered his army to drop 2000,000-3000, 000 million cluster bombs or bomblets all over Lebanon , with the apparent intent to kill and maim as many Lebanese children as possible.

As a result of this war crime, Lebanese children continue to die nearly on a daily basis as a result of the explosion of these ubiquitous explosives.

These are only a few examples of the war crimes committed under Halutz' command, which makes him a war criminal, not unlike any Nazis war criminal.

Halutz was not merely carrying out orders, as many war criminals would argue when brought before a war crime tribunal. He was giving orders to commit these crimes and he fully understood the implications of his acts, which makes him even more indictable.

In short, the man is clearly a reptile terrorist, a war criminal and a child killer. And as such, he should never be allowed to sit down or be in the company of respectable people. Dan Halutz belongs behind bars, not on the campus of HarvardUniversity .

His presence at one of the world's finest schools is a stigma of shame for Harvard and the entire academic community in the United States .

It is for these reasons that the Harvard administration is called upon to immediately eject this vile criminal, who has tons of innocent blood on his hands, from the University.

Yes, Harvard receives grants and financial contributions from pro-Israeli donors. However, Harvard should never give the impression that its ethics and moral principles are on sale for the highest bidder?

Before the Beit Hanoun massacre,Hamas and Fatah appeared close to reaching an agreement on the formation of a government of national unity. The unity government was expected to include many "technocrats" who are unaffiliated with either Hamas or Fatah.

According to the draft agreement, the central aim of this new government will be the lifting of the draconian Western sanctions imposed by the United States, EU and Israel on the Palestinian Authority (PA) enclaves following Hamas's election victory early this year.

The sanctions have effectively crippled the Palestinian economy, impoverished Palestinians as never before and pushed tens of thousands of Palestinian families to the brink of starvation.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah met for two hours Monday night (6 November) in an effort to put the final touches on the draft agreement. However, the meeting ended indecisively after Abbas rejected Hamas's choice for prime minister.

Hamas proposed current Health Minister Basem Naim, a medical doctor, who is associated but not affiliated with Hamas, as the next prime minister. Rejecting this choice, Abbas insisted that the next prime minister ought to be truly independent.

However, according to lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti, who attended the meeting, the two sides seemed confident that an agreement in this regard would be reached soon.

Fatah had earlier demanded that the next premier would have to come from the West Bank, but Hamas, it is said, was able to convince Fatah that at this juncture of the struggle for statehood, there was no point in having a prime minister from the West Bank who could be arrested or abducted by the Israeli occupation army on the first day he sits in his office, if only to humiliate the Palestinians and show them that Israel was still the enslaver and boss.

There are two more issues seemingly impeding the conclusion of an agreement between the two sides. The first being Hamas's insistence that Abbas obtain from the US and EU a commitment to lift the sanctions once the new government is formed.

But, for many obvious reasons, Abbas cannot force Western powers to undertake such a commitment, at least for the time being. However, it is possible that he can eventually get a pledge of some sort from the Americans and Europeans to put pressure on Israel to release hundreds of millions of dollars of Palestinian customs revenue levied by Israel but withheld as a punishment measure against the Palestinians for electing the Hamas movement. Abbas might also be able to get the US to send a signal to some Arab states that they can resume financial aid to the cash-strapped PA.

The second obstacle to concluding a deal between Fatah and Hamas is the latter's demand that a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Palestinians take place before the formation of the unity government. Abbas, however, argued convincingly that he had no authority over the Israelis and that in any case Palestinian national interests shouldn't be held hostage to Israeli whims.

According to insiders in both Fatah and Hamas, these two issues are likely to be settled soon, something that boosts hopes that a final breakthrough is within reach. The turnabout in Abbas's approach to Hamas has left observers wondering what made him abandon his former threats to dissolve the Hamas-led government and parliament, declare a government of emergency and call for early general elections.

Some observers here cite the latest Israeli rampage of murder and terror in northern Gaza, which resulted in the death of over 60 Palestinians -- the vast bulk of them innocent civilians -- and the maiming and wounding of dozens others, as a central factor that strongly militated against any contemplated steps by Abbas against Hamas.

Indeed, a coup by Abbas and Fatah against Hamas under such circumstances would have portrayed Abbas and his Fatah Party as collaborators with Israel, not only against Hamas, but against the Palestinian people and its just cause. And this would have proven a political suicide for the former ruling party of the PA.

Another factor in Abbas's turn around may be due to rumours that he had received a message from the Bush administration informing him that the US wouldn't actively oppose the formation of a government of technocrats as long as such a government agreed to renounce armed struggle, recognise Israel and accept outstanding international agreements pertaining to the Israeli- Palestinian struggle. Interestingly, the draft agreement between Hamas and Fatah doesn't explicitly stipulate the recognition of Israel but supports the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, which could be construed as a tacit recognition of Israel.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying that the US would rather see Hamas "inside" than "outside" the government. British Prime Minister Tony Blair made similar statements, saying that Britain would talk to Hamas if it accepted the conditions set up by the international community.

Thus, it is possible to assume that the US may have changed its own position vis-à-vis Hamas. Its erstwhile policy has been vindictive at best, aimed at isolating the movement and inducing popular revolt against its government in Gaza. Now perhaps, the US may be reconsidering its policy, having realised that all the economic, financial and street pressure failed to unseat Hamas or undermine its popularity.

There is a final important factor which may have prompted Abbas and Fatah to seek a compromise with Hamas. This lies in the presumption that in any new elections in the occupied Palestinian territories, Fatah has no guarantee that it won't lose again to Hamas, despite the growing poverty and the social-economic crisis facing the Palestinians. This view is corroborated by several opinion polls published in the Occupied Territories recently, showing that Hamas has, by and large, been able to retain its previous popularity.

On Tuesday an opinion poll released by the Palestinian Centre for Public Opinion in Beit Sahur and supervised by Dr Nabil Kukali, showed that over 75 per cent of Palestinians blamed the US, Israel, EU and Fatah for the financial-economic crisis in the Occupied Territories. Replying to the question "Who do you think is responsible for the deterioration in living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?", 30.6 per cent of respondents said the US, 28.4 per cent said Israel, 12 per cent said Fatah, three per cent said EU and one per cent answered "I don't know". Only 24.6 per cent said Hamas was to be blamed.

Israel will no doubt be angered by any genuine reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Israel's policy has always sought to foment civil strife and intra-Palestinian fighting in the hope that a civil war in the Occupied Territories would eventually cause many Palestinians to emigrate. The Beit Hanoun massacre, yesterday, is yet another criminal attempt by Israel to kill two birds with one stone: terrorise the Palestinian people and sabotage any true reconciliation.

The Palestinian government led by Ismail Haniya has been plagued by constant crises in the three months that it has been in power.

The government is reeling from a financial embargo imposed by the US, Canada, Israel and the EU, rendering it unable to pay the salaries of 165,000 civil servants and public employees, although the government says it will soon pay those wages.

Internally, it has faced security challenges from the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, the president.

Despite mediation, clashes between the two factions, which have killed 10 Palestinians and left many more wounded, have continued.

The following are excerpts of an interview Aljazeera.net had with the Palestinian prime minister recently.

Aljazeera.net: Is a Palestinian civil war inevitable?

Ismail Haniya: Inter-Palestinian fighting is a red line we must not breach, and civil war among the brothers has no place in our dictionary. We are not experts in civil war and are unlikely to allow ourselves to be dragged into such an ugly prospect. Besides, for a civil war to take place, there have to be two competing camps with fundamentally different interests. And we don't have this in our society.

Yes, but Palestinian blood has been shed by Palestinian hands here in Gaza. Doesn't this alarm you and your government?

Indeed, it does and we are pained by every drop of Palestinian blood shed in these regrettable clashes, and I assure you that we are taking extraordinary efforts to see that things like this don't happen again.

But Fatah's and Hamas's armed men are in the streets and any misunderstanding here or there could trigger an open confrontation.

There are certain differences and factional competition between Fatah and Hamas. However, these differences don't warrant shedding our blood by our hands. We will see to it that the voice of reason prevails. And I assure you that those who are betting on civil war among our people will be disappointed.

Do you think the latest acts of killing and lawlessness in Gaza were spontaneous or organised?

There are indications that certain organised entities are behind recent efforts to destabilise the security situation in Gaza, apparently in order to portray the government as powerless and unable to establish the rule of law.

Some of these people are symbols of the erstwhile reign of corruption who are worried that stability will be detrimental to their interests. These elements exist in various government departments and are constantly trying to create confusion and conflict. But we will get them sooner or later.

Who are those people?

They are America's agents, since they are carrying out the American-Israeli plan of corroding and weakening the government until it collapses. However, the vigilance of our people has repulsed these elements.

What is your government's position regarding the public referendum President Abbas said he would hold if the factions failed to reach a common strategy with regard to Israel?

Well, first of all, we must give priority to the national dialogue in order to ensure its success. However, if we find ourselves facing a dead-end, we can then examine other possible alternatives.

Having said that, we are disquieted by the timing of the referendum proposal which we feel is used as a pressure card that could eviscerate the national dialogue of substance.

There is a widespread feeling that the PA has two heads, you and Abbas?

Yes, there are manifestations that would give such an impression. However, it is also true that the powers of both the president and the prime minister are governed by the Basic Law.

The problem we face is that we inherited a polity in which Fatah held all the reins, causing a lot of overlap. Today, there are two forces navigating the Palestinian boat, each relying on its democratic and patriotic legitimacy.

I know for sure that there are those who are trying to portray the PA with two heads. But I am convinced that this issue will disappear gradually as we achieve more understanding and harmony between the PA leadership and the government.

The US administration estimated that your government would collapse in three months.

The Americans are saying a lot of things. Just look how they are behaving in Iraq. I want to remind the Americans that my government came through the ballot boxes and enjoys overwhelming public backing, irrespective of the morbid whims we keep hearing from this or that capital.

They are punishing our people for exercising their democratic rights. By behaving with such vindictiveness against helpless people languishing under foreign military occupation, the US is creating more and more enemies in this part of the world.

Muslims and non-Muslims alike no longer believe that the US is serious about democracy.

Is Hamas losing public support?

Go to the streets and ask the people yourself. Haven't you seen the huge rallies throughout the Gaza Strip?

Yes, but people are starving and they want to feed their children, and they can't feed them with slogans and rhetoric.

We are not selling people words and empty rhetoric. However, we just can't allow ourselves to give up our legitimate and inalienable rights for the sake of American money. Will you give up the al-Aqsa mosque for foreign aid?

What will you say to those Palestinians who say that Hamas spells poverty?

Poverty and unemployment were rampant long before Hamas's election victory. Besides, if Hamas spells poverty as you say, then why did a majority of the people elect Hamas and why are most Palestinians backing Hamas?

How much aid have you succeeded in procuring from Arab, Islamic and friendly countries?

Despite the severity of the American blockade, we have succeeded in raising more than $400 million which would have solved the bulk of our problems had it not been for US bullying of local and regional banks to refrain from transferring the money to the occupied territories.

We realise that there is a huge conspiracy to besiege the elected Palestinian government and push it to the brink of collapse. But our people's steadfastness and vigilance will not allow this to happen.

What is the US policy regarding Hamas?

Well, the Bush administration is under strong influence of three main camps that are inherently hostile to everything Islamic: The American right, Christian Zionism and the so-called neocons.

These forces combined are more or less controlled or highly influenced by Israel. In fact, everybody knows that the Jewish lobby has effectively come to control America's foreign policy.

This explains the fact that the Bush administration is more hostile to us than even some Israeli leaders. Isn't this strange?

As to the American people, we are convinced that ordinary Americans don't hate us. And we don't hate them. But they are not getting the truth about what is going here.

Would there be peace between Israel and a prospective Palestinian state on the entirety of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem?

Yes, there can be peace, but let me ask you a question: Is Israel ready to give up all the territories occupied in 1967 even in return for full peace with the Palestinians?

West Bank - Palestinian analyst Ali al-Jerbawi has warned that the Hamas-led Palestinian government will collapse in three months unless it pays the salaries of 140,000 government employees.

Ali Al Jerbawi, a Palestinian political analyst and a professor of political science at Bir Zeit university in the West Bank, is also the former chairman of the Palestinian Elections Commission.

He believes Western pressure on the Palestinians was intended to coerce them into handing over their rights to Israel, including the right to have a viable and territorially contiguous state in the West Bank.

His remarks coincided with American and European steps to cut economic aid to the new government.

The following are excerpts of the interview.

Al Jazeera.net: Do you think the pressures against the Hamas-led government will bring about its collapse?

Al-Jerbawi: This is the question that everybody is asking.

It is clear that these sanctions and pressures are aimed first and foremost at aborting and corroding the Hamas-led government. The disintegration of the PA itself is not the goal. The aim is to weaken Hamas in order to pave the way for an Israeli-imposed solution.

The ultimate benchmark of the government is its ability to regularly pay the salaries of the estimated 140,000 public servants and government employees. If the government fails to pay the salaries, it will collapse.

How would Hamas deal with this?

Hamas could decide to take the entire Palestinian Authority with it or make it very hard or even impossible for any subsequent non-Hamas government to rule.

Is this a realistic scenario?

I don't think that a movement that was elected by a huge majority a few weeks ago would just agree to quit very easily.

We have to remember that the collapse of the government would also entail the collapse of the parliament and the cancelling of the elections. That would be a grave and paramount matter in any other country.

What options does Hamas have?

They could resort to violence, in which case they would argue that since the world didn't respect the outcome of the democratic game, then armed struggle is the only way to restore Palestinian rights from Israel.

I previously advised Hamas to form a government whose ministers would not be affiliated with any political or resistance faction. This would have saved Hamas a lot of trouble while at the same time allowing the movement to retain its control of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Do you think Hamas will undergo a further radicalisation if the present government collapses?

I don't think Hamas would move towards al-Qaeda. However, I repeat that any movement that feels it is under attack will do everything it can to make the tasks of its enemies very difficult to achieve.

What would be the regional ramifications of a prospective collapse of the PA?

There would be a lot of desperation and outrage in the region and many people would lose faith in Western democracy.

How is Israel affected by this?

Israel wants to see a quisling PA or at least a PA that is so weak but not completely dead which would enable Israel to evade responsibility towards the occupied people and at the same time continue to impose unilateral measures on the Palestinians as Israel has been doing.

How do you think the Palestinians should react to this?

The Palestinians would think seriously of dissolving and ending the Palestinian Authority because we can't allow ourselves to be in a state of suspension, under the occupation on the ground, but "free" in the eyes of much of the world.

Do you think the Arab states will help the Hamas government during this financial crisis?

Are you serious? The Arab states didn't help [the late Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat when he was under siege for two years in Ramallah.

These states won't help the present Palestinian government for two main reasons: First, they are themselves under intense American pressure and influence and seem unable to assert a sovereign policy towards the Palestinians.

Second, they think that the success of the Hamas government is dangerous for the stability of their regimes, given the Islamic or Islamist nature of the present Palestinian government.

Where did Hamas go wrong?

They made a serious blunder when they appointed their top political and ideological leaders as key ministers in the government. They also made declarations which meant they climbed up to the top of the ladder and had to come down and make concessions.

Do you think Hamas should recognise Israel but without a reciprocal Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state, say within the 1967 borders?

Hamas shouldn't say: "I don't recognise Israel, period."

Hamas should say it is willing to recognise Israel if Israel is willing to recognise a sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and allows the repatriation of Palestinian refugees. I think the world community would receive such a stand with understanding and less hostility.