President Nasser, who has a taste for anniversaries, was expected to celebrate one at Gaza last weekend. It is exactly a year since the Israelis left the strip, and prophets had whispered that he might declare a Palestinian republic there. Instead he made only a weak gesture; perhaps he is not sufficiently sure of his strength in the refugee areas not under his control to claim the allegiance of Palestinians everywhere. He gave Gaza a legislative council dominated by Egyptians and Egyptian-appointed members, and an executive council appointed by the Egyptian minister. This is far short of the independent status he might have used to rally all dispersed Palestinians. What held him back? Even within the narrow confines of the Gaza strip, he has to contend with a struggle between the indigenous land-owning families and the refugees. The Gaza families have a way of keeping on both sides of the fence, and the refugees have produced no real leaders. The former Mufti of Jerusalem can no longer be dusted down and brought forward as the leader of all Palestinians; he is now heard from only when it suits his Egyptian hosts. He has recently said that his ‘All Palestine […]