Is the Middle East going to war?

 To be sure, Palestinian history is full of strange claims about Israel (such as charges that Israeli soldiers pass out poison candy to Palestinian children), but this was surely one of the strangest. How could Gaza be "occupied" with no Jews? What is the nature of this claim?

 Another question: Since the disengagement, Palestinians have done everything in their power to force Israel to re-enter Gaza. As Bethlehem-based human rights lawyer Shawqi Issa wrote , "the Palestinians must force Israel to re-occupy Gaza."

 Doesn't make sense

There are several possible explanations for this phenomenon. The most obvious is that the absence of an Israeli occupier places a tremendous burden on the Palestinian leadership to produce results. Since the "naqba" in 1948, and especially since the Six Day War in 1967, Israel has always been there as a scapegoat for every Palestinian or international problem imaginable, from September 11 to the death of Yasser Arafat and everything in between.

 Now that the Israel is out of Gaza and the "occupation" is no longer, the Palestinians are in a bind. They've got the resources to build the state they say they want (per capita the PA receives more foreign aid than any other country in the world), meaning they've got to reign in corruption and start producing, or they've got to come up with some reason they "can't."

 In other words, in an Israel-less Gaza, the only options for the Palestinians are to create their state or to reconstruct their scapegoat. In this context, Shawqi Issa's words bear repeating: "The Palestinians must force Israel to re-occupy Gaza."

 Perhaps there is another possibility: Could it be that for the Palestinian national movement, the Israel – Palestinian conflict is existential in nature? Groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLO and others were created to fight Israel, and for very little else. Could it be that these groups will try to preserve the conflict at all cost, because without the conflict there is no PLO/Hamas/Islamic Jihad?

 One might even take this line of reasoning further. While it is true that there are a group of people who now identify themselves as Palestinian, it is equally true that before 1964 no such group existed. Had Arab residents of Jaffa, Haifa or Jerusalem been asked in 1900, or even in 1950, about their nationality, they would likely have answered "Arab," not Palestinian.

 And indeed, it is difficult to distinguish 'Palestinianism' from a broader Arab identity. All the main defining characteristics of "nation" – language, cuisine, culture, religion - are indistinguishable from Arab culture. And even in examples where a unique, Palestinian culture has emerged – such as film maker Hany Abu-Assad or poet Mahmoud Darwish – their work focuses almost entirely on aspects of the conflict with Israel.

 Not that this negates Palestinian nationhood today. With somewhere between 2-7 million people around the world who define themselves in whole or in part as Palestinians, the nation exists, and must be treated as such. But it could be an explanation for the determination of Palestinian officialdom – in all groups and at all levels – to prevent a true end to Israeli involvement in Palestinian life.