These times bring to mind an incident when my young daughter demanded that I continue to blow up her big pink balloon as much as possible. The more I blew air into it, the tauter the balloon became and the larger the threat of it exploding. I warned the child time and again that if I blew into it too much, it would explode in our faces and make a big, scary sound. She didn’t heed my warnings, so I continued to pump up the balloon until the rubber gave out under the extreme internal pressure. A big bang, if you may, a shriek of surprise and terror and a realization that we were now left with the remains of what was once a magnificent pink balloon.

The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are facing a frightfully similar situation. As pressures continue to escalate –from inside and out – the looming threat of internal strife and God forbid, civil war, grows ominously closer. Like a rat in a cage – lock and key compliments of the Israeli occupation - the Palestinians, government, presidency, parliament and people, are starting to feel they have nowhere to turn except on each other.

Major disasters are usually foreshadowed by calamities of a far less magnitude but which should nonetheless be regarded as serious warning signs. While everyone predicted complications with the international community following the Legislative Council elections last January, these “complications” have risen to disproportionate levels. Not only did the international community, led on by the United States, boycott the new Hamas-led government, a move widely expected given the unconditional American bias towards Israel and the overall global misconception of “terrorism,” but now major donors are expressing their reservations over a possible national unity government.

In this regard, it all boils down to a few key issues. The United States, Israel and the European Union, to a lesser extent, have made it clear they will not settle for anything less than their original three demands: a recognition of Israel, a renouncement of violence and recognition of previous agreements signed between the PLO and Israel.

Meantime, the Palestinians, government and people, are buckling at the knees under the burden of a severe lack of cash flow. International personalities including UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights John Dugard recently described the situation in the Gaza Strip as “intolerable,” saying three-quarters of the Palestinians there depend on food aid. Dugard also went where no western politician dares to go, criticizing Canada, Europe and the US for cutting funds to the Palestinian Authority. “The Palestinian people are punished for having democratically elected a regime unacceptable to Israel, the US and the EU,” he said.

On the ground, the Palestinians are feeling the crunch more than ever. Since the start of the school year, tens of thousands of employees of the public education sector have been on strike demanding their salaries, which many of whom have not received for the past six months. Aggravating this situation is the fact that Israel has tightened its measures throughout the West Bank and Gaza vis-à-vis the Apartheid wall and checkpoints, namely in isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings.

Still, while the Palestinians are well aware of the evils of the Israeli occupation and have been confronting them for almost 40 years, it is the internal threats that are by far the more dangerous.

As the international community presses on Hamas to yield its demands and at the same time on Fateh to ultimately help push them out, it seems almost inevitable that the Titans would eventually clash. Since the formation of a predominately-Hamas government, the Fateh-headed presidency has been struggling to reassert itself on the political and practical playing field. The civil servant strike was orchestrated by Fateh with Hamas government officials accusing the movement of using it to undermine its authority and capabilities in the eyes of the people.

Serious accusations began to fly two weeks ago when Hamas-affiliated Minister of Refugee Affairs Atef Adwan accused the presidency of not paying civil servant salaries even though he claims it has the money in its coffers. Adwan charged that more than $300 million were paid to the presidency from international donors.

The statements naturally had Abbas and his associates up in arms, calling Adwan’s statements irresponsible, “inciting” and most of all untrue, claiming the last bit of funds it received was from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the tune of $65 million.

The timing of Adwan’s outburst could not have been more sensitive given the rising anger from public sector employees over a lack of salaries, especially during the month of Ramadan.

Things only got worse as pressures continued to mount. On September 15, head of international relations in the Palestinian intelligence services, Jihad Tayeh was shot and killed along with four of his bodyguards near the Beach Camp in Gaza. While Fateh largely pointed the finger at Hamas for the assassination, the government vehemently denied any involvement and vowed to bring Tayeh’s killers to justice.

Then there was President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the UN General Assembly on September 22. While the US has traditionally supported Abbas throughout his short stint as Prime Minister back in 2003 and then when he was elected President, since the election of Hamas there has been a cordial but strained relationship between the two. A severely weakened Abbas has not been able to secure either the guarantee of the formation of a national unity government nor funds to pay his increasingly disgruntled PA employees. The US has been widely viewed as not stepping up to the plate to help Abbas regain some of his power, both in terms of undermining the current government and in financial aid.

That is why, some say, Abbas was so accommodating at the UN, saying the future Fateh-Hamas government would recognize Israel. For Hamas, that was a deal-breaker. However close the two sides had come to forming a national unity government – indeed, the news was that an agreement between Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Abbas had been reached – plans were immediately scrapped after that.

One day later, Haniyeh said he would not head a unity government that recognized the Jewish state. He did say however, that he would agree to a long-term truce with Israel and that Hamas was ready to accept a Palestinian state on territories occupied in 1967.

For now, Hamas and Fateh are trying to make their way back to the pre-UN speech although a meeting between Abbas and Haniyeh was “postponed” following Abbas’ return. While no one can be sure what transpires behind closed doors, one thing is for certain. Both Hamas and Fateh – regardless of their ulterior motives and their thirst for positions of power – must recognize that their ultimate goal should not be to bring the other one down. Parliament seats, the presidency, ministries and government positions do not amount to anything when they are attached to shackles and chains and the warden is the Israeli occupation.

Before our pink balloon explodes and we all find ourselves regretting that we allowed the pressure to break our inner lining, let us remember that we are all one people in the same boat and that it would benefit everyone – Hamas and Fateh included – if we learned to row in the same direction.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Programme at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org