For its own sake, Israel must keep the Palestinian Authority alive
Disintegration would obligate Israel to reassume responsibility for more than two million Palestinian lives.
By Shaul Arieli Tags: Israel news West BankIt's a mistake to view Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' announcement that he will not run in the next Palestinian Authority elections as simply a ritual designed to apply pressure on the international community and Israel. Even if, as anticipated, the elections don't take place in January and Abbas remains in office for now, he is liable in the future to make good on his threat to quit and thereby place Israel in a position fundamentally similar to the one obtaining in Gaza before Operation Cast Lead, but with much more serious ramifications.
In Cast Lead Israel decided to leave control of the Gaza Strip in the hands of Hamas, understanding that the only alternative was resumption of Israeli rule there, with all its disastrous implications.
The disintegration of the PA would perhaps generate a storm of exultant "we told you so"s from right-wingers, but it would also obligate Israel to reassume responsibility for ruling over the lives of more than two million Palestinians in the West Bank.
In the absence of a suitable candidate to succeed Abbas (assuming that Marwan Barghouti, who has declared that he will contest the election, could not do so from his Israeli prison cell), the breakup of the PA is not an unreasonable scenario.
The disintegration of the PA could coincide with a decision by Fatah to commit to reconciliation with Hamas, which would be accompanied by the end of the Dayton plan to build a Palestinian military infrastructure, and especially an end to security coordination with Israel.
It could also end the Fayyad plan for creating institutions of a future Palestinian state, the release of Hamas prisoners held in the West Bank and the renewal of popular protest.
The dismantling of the PA would be tantamount to a public admission by the Palestine Liberation Organization of the failure of the diplomatic route. Even if Fatah, which has been losing ground on the Palestinian street, doesn't declare it publicly, it would have to adopt the call by the Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal to freeze efforts to come to an agreement with Israel, "at least for a certain period of time, and to embrace jihad, resistance and popular action of all kinds."
Hamas would become "the only game in town" by virtue of its success in bringing an end to the Israeli presence in Gaza and would commit to doing the same in the West Bank.
As things stand, Abbas and his Fatah colleagues will refrain from challenging Hamas in democratic elections. Abbas' political organizing, which planned to rely on the anti-Hamas nationalist camp, will not win if it only comes out against the organization's social platform, whose radical Islamic signature is already visible in the Gaza Strip. It will require political reinforcement.
In his speech, Abbas left an opening to Israel and the United States to regain its composure and act to prevent the scenario from becoming a reality. The initiative over a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state also leaves such an opening, taking into consideration that it is a plan that can indeed be carried out.
Its complexity, however, and the risks that it carries on the Palestinian side as well will, in all probability, lead to the postponement of a declaration and the possibility of resuming negotiations before an independent state becomes a reality.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who time and again speaks of the need to make a distinction between Gaza and the West Bank, must act to make this concept a reality and to again give the West Bank Palestinians the sense that there is benefit in a diplomatic solution.
Israel must create the conditions that will in the short run enable the realization of the Fayyad plan to build a Palestinian state "from the bottom up" and in the long run the resumption of negotiations with an agreed agenda and time frame for completing negotiations on a final-status arrangement.
The writer is a member of the board of directors of the Council for Peace and Security and one of the architects of the Geneva Initiative.
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It is not Israel's fault that palestinians live in a cesspool. It is the fault of 62 years of palestinian leadership and the palestinian pubic accepting these corrupt and incompetent politicians for maintaining increasing hostility and threats of hostility toward the jewish people. The could have had a state 62 years ago if they accepted peaceful coexistence with israel and the Jews...BUT THEY CHOSE HOSTILITY
The sooner the PA is dismantled the faster peace will come as there is no chance to make peace with an organization that exist to destroy Israel. Please read the CURRENT PLO charter and see for yourself. It has never been changed and that was actually a condition of OSLO that among many other was not met by the PLO aka Palestinian Authority.
--at serious risk; "investments" made over decades by the key players on ALL sides in such things as power, prestige, levels of income, their very careers, in some cases--all dependent upon a predictable continuance of the "status quo" (however messy). Think "oncologists" (cancer doctors), if you will: would they not (and quite understandably) look upon the immediate prospect of that disease suddenly disappearing--as a VERY mixed blessing?
No one believes that Israel supports a two-state solution, that settlement expansion is not official Israeli policy, that Israel would ever negotiate with a moderate representative of a people Likud denies even have an identity. Nature abhors a vacuum, and unfortunately for all, that leaves Hamas. Which is ironic, as Hamas has been seen by some commentators as a helpful force to destabilize moderate Palestinian elements, and stigimatize their relations with the west.
over the territory it occupies. It cannot occupy it,s own territory. It is the occupying Power. Notwithstanding that , you are correct.Israel is responsible for all those citizens under it,s "CONTROL". Israel however, likes to believe it only has responsibility for the illegal settlers(Israeli citizens) that have been transferred to those occupied territories ,in contradiction of the 4th geneva convention, article 49. Regards
Good grief! Every time the Pals screw up we're supposed to clean up their mess? Arieli should put the responsibility where it really lies: For their own sake, the Palestinians must keep themselves alive. The world and the Palestinians in the street have been talking about Fatah corruption for 20 years. What has been done? Are the institutions less corrupt? Is the accounting more transparent? Is there any concept of "merit" in the Palestinian lexicon? Arieli and the Left have to stop treating the Pals like babies every time they whine. It's not a question of getting to play with bigger and bigger guns, but rather the maturity to manage their own affairs that is the stumbling block. Abbas should clean up his act. The more mature one behaves, the better the relationship with the grownup nations of the world.
for Arabs in the west bank.
The only flaw of Oslo is that it came way too late, long after our Yesha and their Hamas have both been allowed by our foolish leaders to develop into such enemies of any peace initiative that they were perfectly capable together, each in its own way, of foiling it. "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the storm." Hoshea/Hosea 8:7
and get rid of the corrupt P.A. that keeps them poor and degraded. Let Israel give them back their old jobs and give them normal lives. Sometime in the future when they are ready and have a leadership that worries more about their lives and not about destroying Israel, we can talk about giving them more and more independance.
What a few thousand shekels a year per Israeli (including every man, woman and child) in new taxes. Piece of Cake for Victor and Yishai. If the PA folds, funding from the US, EU and UN stops. You get to carry the full cost of government and feeding and clothing where needed. US defense credits won't pay teachers or firefighters or police or your own soldiers. You get to pay for your own occupation.
vh: "oslo is a complete and utter failure as the plo were never serious about a state and have played around for 16 years with no intention of providing an infrastructure to make it possible." Then it fails, and it needs to be wound up and, with it, the Palestinian Authority. Now, victor, ponder the implications. Because even AFTER that is done Israel will STILL be the occupying power. And with that Power comes Responsibility, and without the PA then Israel has no-one else to palm that responsibility onto. Israel will have to do it all itself, and pay the cost for doing it. The garbage will still have to be collected, but Israel will have to pay the wages of the garbage collectors. Power utilities, water supplies, roads, hospitals, banks, buses, boardwalks and sidewalks still have to be maintained, only now Israel will have to pay for it, rather than the EU and the USA. It costs a lot to run a country, especially when it ain't your own.
oslo is a complete and utter failure as the plo were never serious about a state and have played around for 16 years with no intention of providing an infrastructure to make it possible. israels lack of foresight anf lack of failsafe made sure it was doomed from day 1.
Actually all the residents of both West Bank, including Old Jerusalem, and Gaza, are in international law Israeli subjects. Sure they are not Israeli citizens - but there is no question that they are Israeli subjects and it is the responsibility of the current Sovereign authority of the territories to protect the welfare and wellbeing of each and every one of its citizens. That is how things stand now, it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference whether or not the so-called 'Palestinian Authority' exists or not.
It has proven itself time and again to be so. The Philistines don't, and never did, want a peaceful state in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. They have shown us time and again in word and in deed that they will not stop until Israel within ANY borders no longer exists. We need to return to the status quo ante; send them back to Tunis and Beirut, and once and for all state unequivocally that the land of Israel belongs to the nation of Israel- exclusively. If these Arabs want to live here, then it means as foreign (Jordanian) citizens on Israeli soil, and it means in peace; real peace. If they must live Jew-free lives, then it will be elsewhere- in their own lands. There is no alternative.
If the PA folds itself into Hamas it is not only an admission that it has failed but the end of the 2 state solution. The US will never allow Hamas to control Judea and Samaria; not for love of Israel but because it would embolden the jihadis against the "big Satan". The pals would get their jihad and it would be a war of independence or dissolution. Jews would end up ruling the whole Eretz Yisrael with Judea and Samaria being primarily Arab provinces, after many years of terror attacks.
Look, a large part of the reason why Israel has been able to maintain this occupation for so long is that for the last 15 years it hasn't had to pay the running costs. Other People have been footing the bill via foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority. So Israel has been able to maintain an occupation "on the cheap", and the PA and its donors have been conned into agreeing to this on the promise that they were building up the institutions of statehood. But if Israel really has no intention of ending the occupation then there MUST come a time when the PA says "This is bollocks! We are simpy acting as the IDF's subcontractor. Why should we be helping Israel to fund the occupation?" Better to dissolve the PA and tell Israel that if it wants to be the occupying power then it has to pay the full fare. Because at the moment it is only paying for its own infrustructure i.e. "the settlements", and for precious little else.
The almost panic in the Israeli right wing is almost amusing. It would be more so if it weren't so serious. Fayyad has been talking about a future two years hence. Israel has plenty of time to become rational and stop settlement building and then come to the table for good faith negotiations. Maybe one side could even bring a map of what they think a 1:1 land exchange should look like. And maybe Israel could give up the fantasy of right of conquest. Nothing acquired before 1967 is Israel's by right of conquest, defensive or otherwise, and was never claimed by the State of Israel before 1967. If you want some of what Israel conquered, offer to trade. NOW, to cause real panic. Abbas is 74 and might have a stroke tomorrow. Who will Netanyahu appoint as viceroy if that happens? Salaam Fayyad could have a heart attack tomorrow too. He's old enough. What is Bibi's back up there?
...Israel went for broke and thought it could keep on building the illegal colonies and making war with impunity and time ran out. The Palestinians will get their state whether Israel complains or not and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Remember all those years ago when so many of us were trying to get you folks to adopt the Arab Peace Initiative and make peace? You frittered away those years with radical rabbis and lost the Second Lebanon War (Hezbollah's part of the legit government *now*, they gots really big and numerous REAL rockets and such, yep, that's a big loser 10-4). Sorry about your luck, you snooze you lose, you wanted to just take the land and resources with impunity and now it's come to an end. Too bad so sad. Even the US has not ruled a thing out, Haaretz was quite creative in the headline in the story claiming the US ruled the idea out. The actual briefing puts it in a whole new context, the US guaranteed no veto folks, and remember Kosovo?
I,wish the israelis and arabs,could live in peace and they can.if wasn"t for the radical muslims,who hate both israelis and arabs who wish to live in peace.
Declaring the failure of the peace of process and disolving the PA is the apropriate response to the lack of seriosness on the Israeli part. Israel is using the PA to adminster the local Palestinian citie while expanding settlements between Palestinian cities making the essense of the two stste solution imposible. Let the PA disolve itelf and the occupying power will be responsible for the occupied and that will bring us one step closer to the one state solution.
Israel knew that in 1948. Hamas is correct: resistance is the only tool the Palestinians possess. NO ONE IS COMING TO HELP the Palestinians sustain their border claim. The Americans simply won't allow that, and the Israelis are determined to have it all.