The West and Israel adopted this strategy when they realized that the victory of Hamas in the parliamentary elections and the formation of a broad-based fundamentalist government would most likely jeopardize the security of the Zionist regime.

Therefore, the U.S., the EU, and even some Arab countries imposed a political and economic boycott on Hamas, and the EU cut its $500 million assistance package to the Palestinians after Hamas won the elections.

This assistance was part of the commitment that the EU assumed after the Oslo Accords of 1993.

Since the cutoff of financial assistance, Hamas has had serious problems in paying the salaries of its workers and providing public services in the occupied territories.

Under U.S. pressure, Arab League member states also cut their financial assistance, which had amounted to about $1 billion, leaving the Palestinian nation to face increasing economic troubles.

Parallel to this pressure, the Zionist regime has been trying to create a rift between the two leading Palestinian parties, Hamas and Fatah, and has also been making efforts to paint the Hamas government as incompetent in order to force the Islamic government to recognize Israel.

To this end, in a provocative move in violation of international law, Israel arrested 28 Palestinian ministers and MPs so the parliament would lose its quorum.

This came at a time when certain Fatah elements were creating insecurity and trouble for the supporters of Hamas in order to push them to make a hasty and unwise response.

In addition, Hamas's insistence on its primary stance, i.e., not recognizing Israel before the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, led Palestinian secular figures to intensify their pressure on the Hamas government to lay the groundwork for its collapse.

All these factors have led to an unprecedented bloody conflict between the supporters of Hamas and Fatah.

If Palestinian leaders do not resolve their differences through a constructive national dialogue at this sensitive juncture, there will definitely be a civil war in the occupied territories in the near future.

In that case, the main winner of this dangerous game will be the Zionist regime and the main loser will be the Palestinian nation.

This is the most dangerous stage in the history of the Palestinian nation's struggle because the United States, Israel, and the European Union are making serious efforts to spark a civil war in Palestine.

The West and Israel adopted this strategy when they realized that the victory of Hamas in the parliamentary elections and the formation of a broad-based fundamentalist government would most likely jeopardize the security of the Zionist regime.

Therefore, the U.S., the EU, and even some Arab countries imposed a political and economic boycott on Hamas, and the EU cut its $500 million assistance package to the Palestinians after Hamas won the elections.

This assistance was part of the commitment that the EU assumed after the Oslo Accords of 1993.

Since the cutoff of financial assistance, Hamas has had serious problems in paying the salaries of its workers and providing public services in the occupied territories.

Under U.S. pressure, Arab League member states also cut their financial assistance, which had amounted to about $1 billion, leaving the Palestinian nation to face increasing economic troubles.

Parallel to this pressure, the Zionist regime has been trying to create a rift between the two leading Palestinian parties, Hamas and Fatah, and has also been making efforts to paint the Hamas government as incompetent in order to force the Islamic government to recognize Israel.

To this end, in a provocative move in violation of international law, Israel arrested 28 Palestinian ministers and MPs so the parliament would lose its quorum.

This came at a time when certain Fatah elements were creating insecurity and trouble for the supporters of Hamas in order to push them to make a hasty and unwise response.

In addition, Hamas's insistence on its primary stance, i.e., not recognizing Israel before the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, led Palestinian secular figures to intensify their pressure on the Hamas government to lay the groundwork for its collapse.

All these factors have led to an unprecedented bloody conflict between the supporters of Hamas and Fatah.

If Palestinian leaders do not resolve their differences through a constructive national dialogue at this sensitive juncture, there will definitely be a civil war in the occupied territories in the near future.

In that case, the main winner of this dangerous game will be the Zionist regime and the main loser will be the Palestinian nation.

These are the steps in the experiment: Imprison (since 1991); remove the prisoners' usual means of livelihood; seal off all outlets to the outside world, nearly hermetically; destroy existing means of livelihood by preventing the entry of raw materials and the marketing of goods and produce; prevent the regular entry of medicines and hospital supplies; do not bring in fresh food for weeks on end; prevent, for years, the entry of relatives, professionals, friends and others, and allow thousands of people - the sick, heads of families, professionals, children - to be stuck for weeks at the locked gates of the Gaza Strip's only entry/exit.

Steal hundreds of millions of dollars (customs and tax revenues collected by Israel that belong to the Palestinian treasury), so as to force the nonpayment of the already low salaries of most government employees for months; present the firing of homemade Qassam rockets as a strategic threat that can only be stopped by harming women, children and the old; fire on crowded residential neighborhoods from the air and the ground; destroy orchards, groves and fields.

Dispatch planes to frighten the population with sonic booms; destroy the new power plant and force the residents of the closed-off Strip to live without electricity for most of the day for a period of four months, which will most likely turn into a full year - in other words, a year without refrigeration, electric fans, television, lights to study and read by; force them to get by without a regular supply of water, which is dependent on the electricity supply.

It is the good old Israeli experiment called "put them into a pressure cooker and see what happens," and this is one of the reasons why this is not an internal Palestinian matter.

The success of the experiment can be seen in the miasma of desperation that hangs over the Gaza Strip, and in the clan feuding that erupts almost daily there, even more than in the battles between Fatah and Hamas militants. One can only wonder that the feuding is not more frequent, and that some bonds of internal solidarity have been maintained, which saves people from hunger.

In contrast to the feuding between clans, Sunday's battles in Gaza and campaigns of destruction and intimidation, mainly in West Bank cities, were not the result of a momentary loss of control. They are generally viewed as battles between two militias, each of which represents one half of the population, but they were initiated by groups within Fatah to put a few more nails into the coffin of the elected leadership.

The security forces of the Palestinian Authority - in other words, of Fatah, or in still other words, the ones that Mahmoud Abbas is in charge of - are hiding behind the genuine distress and protests of public employees who have not been receiving regular salaries. And they are doing so despite the fact that everyone knows that the failure to pay salaries is not a managerial failure, but is above all due to Israeli policy. These forces were dispatched in order to sow organized anarchy, as taught in the school of Yasser Arafat.

And why is this, too, an Israeli matter? Because those who dispatched these militants have a shared interest with Israel in regressing to a situation in which the Palestinian leadership collaborates with the appearance of holding peace talks, while Israel continues its occupation and the international community sends hush money in the form of salaries for the Palestinian public sector.

And there is another reason why this is also an internal Israeli issue: Whatever the outcome, the Palestinian feuding and the risk of civil war directly affect about 20 percent of Israeli citizens, the Arabs. They affect the Arabs, and also those segments of the Israeli public that have not forgotten that Israel will remain the occupying and ruling force over the Palestinians as long as the goal of establishing a Palestinian state in all of the territories occupied in 1967 is not realized.

Meanwhile, Britain-based Jane's International Defense Review reported that Hizbullah received direct intelligence support from Syria during the month-long Israeli offensive on Lebanon, using data collected by listening posts jointly operated by Russian and Syrian crews.

Hizbullah was also fed intelligence from new listening posts built on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which are operated jointly with Iran, it claimed.

Israel has also alleged that Russian anti-tank missiles procured by Syria were reportedly transferred to Hizbullah and used during the war.

Syria's centrality to the collection and transfer of intelligence to Hizbullah is based on separate agreements Damascus signed with Moscow and Tehran on intelligence cooperation, the Haaretz report said, adding that the deal with Russia is much older than the one with Iran, which was signed earlier this year.

The intelligence cooperation agreement between Syria and Iran is part of a broader strategic cooperation accord that was achieved in November 2005 and confirmed during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjead's visit to Damascus in January 2006, Haaretz said.

According to the Jane's report, in its agreement with Syria, Iran insisted that no Russian intelligence officers should be allowed access to the new listening posts, in spite of the long-standing deal between Damascus and Moscow.

The Russian Embassy in Beirut was not available for comment. A Hizbullah spokesperson said his party had no comment.

In another development, Hizbullah held a funeral on Tuesday for one of its Lebanese fighters, who was also an American citizen.

Radwan Saleh, 35, was killed in July during the early days of fighting. Hizbullah members found Saleh's body on Sunday in the village of Maroun al-Ras, one of the last areas Israeli troops left in line with a UN resolution to end the war.

His wife and four children, who live between Lebanon and the United States, flew in from the US for his funeral.

Hizbullah sources said that Saleh joined the resistance in 2000. He lived in California with his wife and children until 1998 before moving back to Lebanon.

Rice is due to arrive Wednesday for a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Olmert is expected to stress in talks with Rice that the United States must play a central role in countering the threat posed by Iran and its nuclear ambitions.

Rice will meet Olmert in the evening, after talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

On Thursday, Rice will meet Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and is then expected to leave Israel - possibly for an unscheduled visit to Beirut.

Rice is visiting Israel following a meeting Tuesday in Cairo with the foreign ministers of six Gulf States, Egypt and Jordan, in a mini-summit that was meant to coalesce moderate Arab states in the region.

At the end of the summit, Rice called for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

This is the first meeting of this forum, which has raised many questions among Arab states regarding its purpose. "This is not a coalition against anybody," said Rice.

The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Abul Gheit, said that no differences of opinion emerged during the meeting, since all the participants are friendly states.

"Our purpose is peace in the region, stability and development. The aim is the establishment of a Palestinian state," he added.

During her meeting with Abbas in Ramallah today, Rice is expected to discuss Palestinian unity government talks.

Rice will impress upon the Palestinian leader that the U.S. is firm on the three conditions posed by the Quartet in return for recognition of any such government. These include the recognition of Israel, the relinquishing of violence and the acceptance of accords previously signed between Israel and the Palestinians.

Rice's tour of the region takes place amid growing criticism regarding her conduct as National Security Adviser in the Bush administration, prior to 9/11. A new book by Bob Woodward of the Washington Post suggests that she ignored a warning that Al-Qaida planned to carry out a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

According to political sources in Jerusalem, there were reservations among administration insiders whether Rice should visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority at a time when the main purpose of her tour of the area is to foment a unified front of moderates in the Middle East against Iran.

These views stemmed from the assessment that the current political climate on the Israeli-Palestinian front is not conducive to any talks or a breakthrough.

However, the conclusion was that skipping over Jerusalem and Ramallah would be perceived negatively among the same moderates, at a time when the U.S. is trying to restore confidence in its regional role.

Rice and Israel's leadership are expected to discuss the Iranian threat, the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon, and the problematic domestic situation in the Palestinian Authority.

According to political sources in Jerusalem, it will be difficult to seriously discuss "steps for strengthening the position of Abbas" at a time when there are violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Judging from statements made by Olmert in a meeting with visiting members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in Jerusalem yesterday, Israel, like the Bush administration, is focused on Iran.

The senators informed Olmert of their visit to Jordan and stressed the need for the formation of a "coalition of moderates," in the region against the threat of a more powerful Iran.

During a meeting with Peretz, the senators were interested to hear about ways in which the results of the Lebanon war could affect the situation in Iraq.

Peretz stressed the difference between "facts and symbols."

"Obviously the fact is that we have an advantage. Hezbollah paid dearly, and will consider very carefully before attacking Israel again," he told the visiting senators.

The sources said that an Israeli F16 jet destroyed by missiles a house east of the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. The house belongs to an activist member in Hamas movement's armed wing, known as al-Qassam Brigades.

Eyewitnesses said the house was totally destroyed, but no injuries had been reported, adding that the owner of the house, the father of the Hamas militant was notified by the Israeli army to evacuate the house shortly before it was targeted.

Meanwhile, five Palestinian militants were injured earlier on Tuesday night in northern Gaza Strip after an Israeli reconnaissance drone targeted their cars by two missiles, said Palestinian doctors.

Palestinian security sources said the militants were members of Islamic Jihad (Holy War) and Fatah movements, adding that their cars were targeted as they were on their way to launch homemade rockets at Israel.