Unity could be a deterrent Dr. Musil Shihadeh                   Most Palestinian and Arab circles, if not all, are asking for the unity of all Palestinian factions as a pre-requisite for any future success. Needless to say that Palestinians in the Diaspora have been marginalized in the quest for such unity. One cannot ignore the great advantages of unity when facing a difficult route toward liberation; as such a step will render collective efforts a formidable position in the long road for independence, when compared to individual and divided efforts.          We have to understand though, that unity of purpose and strategy pre-cedes the physical unity of different factions. If such unity is not taken into serious consideration, then such unity becomes useless if not a deterrent toward the national objectives. It is no secret that serious divergence exists among the Palestinian factions on goals and strategies. The larger organizations, headed by Fatah, strangely believe that peaceful negotiations are the only route available to actuate the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. This position ignores the long list of failures that followed all peace negotiations with the Zionist enemy, with special emphasis on the Oslo accords that resulted in devastating failure to the peace process and the hopes and dreams of the Palestinian people. The peace advocates could not present any indication that the Israelis are ready for real peace based on international legalities, on the contrary Israeli continuous rampage into the West Bank and Gaza proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that peace to the Israelis means an invitation toward more expansion. In this case unity would mean a dangerous step toward the containment of the Intifada and continued resistance. Even if democracy prevails under such unity, the larger factions could impose their will on the smaller groups who believe in the continuation of struggle. The space here does not allow us to numerate the list of flaws that characterized the Oslo accords but suffice it to say that the miserable status quo has been a direct result of Oslo. Israel has succeeded in doubling the settlers and the settlements during the accords than during the continuous confrontations that pre-ceded it. The "unauthorized" Geneva accords had marked a very serious concession of the Palestinian refugee's right of return as a result of turning into the peace process.              The history of the struggle has high lighted the fact that Israel's biggest enemy is peace through international legalities, because such peace would limit Israeli continuous greed for more lands and evictions. Israel's entire existence has no relation with international legalities but the creation of facts on the grounds using its mighty military advantage. Israel's withdrawal from South of Lebanon was a not a result of peaceful negotiations, but rather the heroic acts of the Lebanese resistance. We should have learned by now that resistance and only resistance could force the Zionists into the implementations of international legalities. If unity could lead us into further submission by acquiescing to the vote of the larger factions then we should not rush into such unity until the pacifists can give us a proof that peaceful negotiations could bring about a dignified peace to the ever lasting oppressions of the Palestinian people.