Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, on the current situation

Described as "their unofficial poet laureate" by the The Economist, the magazine publishes Darwish's reaction to, as the magazine puts it, "the internecine fighting that culminated, during one-blood-soaked week, in what some fear could be a fatal schism in their putative state":

June amazed us on its fortieth anniversary: If we do not find someone to defeat us again, we defeat ourselves with our own hand so as not to forget!

The fortieth anniversary Darwish refers to here is that of the Six Day War, the war in which Israel defeated the militarized Arab states in less than a week.

The defeat was so humiliating for the Arab leaders that Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leading Arab Nationalist at the time, wanted to resign from power. The Egyptians protested this move, and Nasser, as is typical in the region, remained in office until he died.

Regardless of the loyalty Egyptians felt towards Nasser, his political program, the idea that hte Arab states would draw strength from and unify around the idea that they were all Arabs, united by culture and language, would be supplanted by a new unifying force: Islam as the solution to the region's problems.

Hamas is one of the groups who was able to capitalize on this belief.

As to what Darwish thinks will happen to the Palestinians, as he continues in his poem:

O future: do not ask us: who are you?
And what do you want from me?
For we too do not know.

A Gaza housewife expresses relief at hearing Israeli bombers overhead

I'm not kidding. From today's Reuters:

For most Palestinians, black-hooded gunmen have long been respected symbols of resistance against Israeli occupation.

Now, frequent internal fighting and lawlessness gripping the Palestinian territories have transformed the militants into no more than gangsters in the eyes of many of those who once saw them as heroes.

"It's very ironic but I'm relieved the Israelis have started a bombing campaign. The gunmen killing each other on the streets were forced to go into hiding," said Mai, a Gaza housewife, referring to strikes aimed at halting rocket attacks on Israel.

As Reuters continues:

"Many of these groups are now a burden on society. They were created to fill a security vacuum under the pretext of national resistance, said legislator Nasser Jum'a, once a leading member of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

"They then blackmailed people, attacked them and confiscated their freedoms as the weak official security forces failed to punish them," he said.

Jum'a said ordinary Palestinians were so fed up with the armed groups "they now wish the Israeli occupation would take over in Gaza or hope for the return of Jordanian rule in the West Bank" to get rid of them.

Yes, it is - as the Gaza housewife said - ironic.