By David Harris

While the international community is looking to the Fatah congress for any signals regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Saudi monarch has taken up another subject, calling upon the Palestinians to stay united.

As the leading Palestinian political organization held its first congress in 20 years, Saudi King Abdullah II sent an open letter to Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of both Fatah and the Palestinian National Authority. In it, the king wrote of his frustration with the Palestinian leadership's inability to coalesce and to present a united front against Israel.

Abdullah's letter was not only aimed at Abbas but at garnering as much support as possible from around the Arab and Muslim worlds. The official Saudi news agency has been keeping careful tabs on where the letter was published and the reaction to it from the editors of key Arab and Muslim newspapers. Most of the reaction was seemingly in agreement.

The monarch had two central messages for the Palestinians: "Palestinian inter-difference is more detrimental to the Palestinian cause than the Israeli enemy," and "if all the world's capabilities were mobilized to establish an independent Palestinian state, nothing would happen as long as the Palestinians remain divided."

Abdullah and some others are referring to both the divisions between Fatah and its main rival Hamas, and the splits within Fatah itself.

"His comments are very logical. It's impossible to solve the Palestinian problem with only half of the Palestinian people on board," said Professor Moshe Maoz of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Abdullah made the remarks because he is very pro-Palestinian, added Maoz.

The fact that the current congress was originally slated for three days last week and is already into the sixth day is yet further proof of the lack of cohesion. In the West, party congresses are set pieces, with the outcome already known. There are always one or two dissenting voices, but the organizers have set aims and usually achieve them.

The Fatah congress has threatened on several occasions to explode into total anarchy as the over 2,200 delegates agree to disagree very publicly, allowing the outside world and, more importantly, the Palestinian people to see just how divided the movement is.

The reason the congress is being held now is that the Palestinians are scheduled to go to the polls in January. Fatah fears Hamas will romp home with a large victory. As a result, it was decided to stage the congress now to give Fatah an opportunity to reunite and show the Palestinian voters it can govern.

Hamas has played a role in the disunity within Fatah this week. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has reportedly prevented hundreds of Fatah delegates from leaving the coastal enclave for the congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

All the blame for Palestinian disunity is heaped on Hamas by former Palestinian Minister of Prisoners Ashraf Ajrami. The independent politician, who served in the Fatah-dominated government of Abbas has been an observer this week in Bethlehem.

"The Egyptians are trying to reach an agreement to unite the Palestinian territories and authorities, but until now the Hamas agenda is different from this goal," said Ajrami.

In his opinion, Hamas is doing everything it can to avoid a settlement with Fatah. While it pays lip service to unity, it is creating fundamentalist Islamic rule on the ground, something that is unacceptable to Fatah, he said.

At the same time, Hamas spokespeople have gone on the offensive accusing Fatah of doing all it can to ensure that a wedge remains between the organizations. Hamas pointed its finger at the Fatah- led Palestinian security forces for carrying out dozens of arrests of Hamas members in the West Bank over the last few days.

"Khaled Mishaal, the head of Hamas's political bureau, has reiterated Saturday his movement's keenness on achieving the Palestinian national reconciliation based on adherence to national constants and resistance," a Hamas website reported on Sunday.

These tit-for-tat accusations and arrests have left the Egyptian intermediaries with little hope for brokering a truce between Hamas and Fatah. Cairo has been trying to cut a deal since violence erupted between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza in 2007. So far all its efforts have failed.

Hamas knows that the longer it drags out its dispute with Fatah and the more Fatah remains internally divided, the better its chances are of electoral success.

That is why Fatah is banking so much on the success of its congress. It is well aware that the perception of a failed gathering with the schisms if anything widening will almost guarantee a Hamas victory in the January elections.

As a result, people like Ajrami are talking up the positives of the congress at every given opportunity, especially with the media.

"The Fatah congress succeeded in approving important political and security documents and another on Jerusalem ... I think after the elections the congress will end with a full success," said Ajrami.

However, Israeli analysts say the only areas where delegates agreed were in shifting the movement into a more hardline direction. Fatah's views on the armed struggle with Israel, the freeing of Palestinian prisoners and its stance on Jerusalem are all expressions of its frustration with Hamas, according to Shmuel Bar, the director of studies at the Institute of Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

He and other Palestinian watchers in Israel believe Fatah realizes it has to up its anti-Israel rhetoric in order to compete with Hamas. Both Israeli and Palestinian experts have told Xinhua that these decisions by Fatah are not necessarily binding on Abbas and his interlocutors with Israel and they are entirely negotiable.

Whether Fatah ends its congress on a united high or the cracks remain evident for all to see, King Abdullah's call will continue to ring loud around the Arab world, but more so on the Palestinian street. As the election looms on the horizon, voters will still be aware of the many schisms within the political elite, and will be fully aware that any future Palestinian parliament and government will be largely impotent to act because of the huge divides that remain.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2009)