IF there ever was a unifying glue that persuaded our quarrelsome politicians to set aside their differences, it is the Palestinian struggle to regain their homeland, stolen by Israel generations ago.
This solidarity dates back to the 1930s, when Burhanuddin al-Helmy, who in 1956 became Pas president, was among the early activists who visited Palestine to protest the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which aimed to establish the Israel state.
This unity was evident when DAP and Pas leaders paused their disputes for a moment a few years back to pose for a group photo at Parliament with the Palestinian Authority ambassador to Malaysia.
In solidarity with Palestine, Malaysia instituted a foreign policy not to recognise Israel, blacklisting the Zionist state in our passports and barring Israelis from entering.
Malaysia's propensity to side with and help the oppressed is well-established: South Africa during Nelson Mandela's incarceration, Bosnia under Serbia's ethnic cleansing, Afghanistan's resistance against the Soviet yoke and Iraq during the American invasion.
Malaysia regularly hosts Palestinian students and provides temporary refuge for those fleeing Israeli guns and bombs.
As a symbolic gesture in support of the Palestinian struggle, Jalan Raja Laut 1 was renamed "Jalan Palestin", reciprocated by Palestinians naming a street in Gaza "Malaysia Street" and raising the Malaysian flag to commemorate our National Day.
Hundreds of millions in Malaysian donations have poured into Palestine over the decades, especially when Palestinians come under siege, and this support has intensified in the last 10 months following the Israeli Defence Forces' assault on Gaza.
The keen support will be renewed, this time in the form of the Palestine Solidarity Rally in Kuala Lumpur this Sunday, following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said the rally will send Malaysia's "strong and clear signal" condemning not only Haniyeh's murder, but also Israel's continued "insanity" towards Palestinians.
Haniyeh, as the frontman seeking an Israeli-Palestine ceasefire, was making progress with mediators in Qatar and Egypt in forging a framework agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a calculated risk by assassinating Haniyeh to sabotage a ceasefire, which is counterproductive to Netanyahu's game plan.
Without a military assault as his weapon of mass deflection, attention will again turn to Netanyahu's corruption trial, which could finally end his political career and premiership and possibly result in imprisonment.
Netanyahu's duplicity is well-documented: he pulled back IDF forces on the day of the Hamas attack, which he had exploited as a strategy for self-preservation.
Furthermore, Netanyahu sees hostages taken by Hamas as collateral damage, with the hostages' families accusing him of stalling negotiations and dragging the crisis for his political survival.
In reality, Netanyahu is a "dead man walking", moving towards impending oblivion as a corrupt politician and an indicted war criminal. Expectations are that Israel's big brother, the Americans, will ease him out once Kamala Harris, horrified at Israel's massive overkill, wins the Nov 5 presidential election. We shall see.