Anger over President Trump’s lop-sided peace plan has led the Palestinian Authority to announce over the weekend that they are cutting all ties with both Israel and the United States. This includes all security cooperation.
This move was announced on Saturday by President Abbas. It was not entirely unexpected, as Palestinian officials had threatened to end the Oslo Accords over the matter. Cutting PA cooperation with Israel would certainly be the first step toward such a move.
The Palestinians see the US plan as effectively ensuring that there will never be an autonomous Palestinian state. Since the Oslo Accords were meant to manage the period leading to Palestinian statehood, many feel it no longer makes sense to maintain them.
The Oslo Accords are incredibly convenient to the Israeli occupation, as it puts the onus of security cooperation and other internal governance of Palestine on the Palestinian Authority. In the absence of the accords, Israel will have to be massively more responsible for the lives of West Bank Palestinians going forward, giving them responsibilities in keeping with other occupying powers.
Some analysts have argued that in having a role in de facto governance, but having no direct security control, the Oslo Accords situation costs the Palestinians $2.5 billion annually. The number is even higher because Israel retains control over Area C.
Israel is planning to annex some 30% of the occupied West Bank in the weeks to come. The US Ambassador to Israel has encouraged the annexations, saying Trump’s plan would give them that control, and that there is no reason to wait. On the other hand, CIA Director Gina Haspel told the Palestinians over the weekend that the US wants Israel to delay the annexation until after the March election.
Delaying annexation another month isn’t going to mean a lot to the Palestinians, and at best seems like an attempt to delay Palestinian retaliation. The Trump plan was always meant to sign off on a permanent occupation, and ensure that the Palestinians, if they are ever given nominal statehood, can never have true independence.
With the US presenting this as the Palestinians’ “last chance,” they are virtually obligating the Palestinians to do something in retaliation. While bad US plans have come and gone, this one is so objectionable to Palestinian goals they have to reject it, and not resisting risks the US trying to advance it as a de facto solution without them.
I’ll believe that Quisling Mahmud Abbas when he carries out that threat.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/so-it-goes/editorial-cartoon-trump-deal-of-the-century-palestine/
The worst aspect of this plan is Trump’s naive idea that Israel will abide by it. In truth, there is no historical precedent for Israel ever having abided by an agreement relating to actual borders. According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, “The area of the Jewish State stretches: “From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.” The Likudnik gangsters who control Israel and surround Trump wink and cross their fingers at any suggestion that this plan is anything more than a stepping stone to the domination of of Syria and Iraq, as well as Palestine.
Mon ami, their motto is “by way of deception.” And they are masters of this game.
You’ve got a real valid point here, Thomas. Yes, the worst aspect of this plan’s DJT’s naive idea that Israel will abide by it. Actually, there’s no historical precedent for Israel ever having abided by an agreement relating to actual borders. According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, “The area of the Jewish State stretches from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates”. You’re right .. The Likudnik gangsters who control Israel and surround DJT wink and cross their fingers at any suggestion that this plan’s anything more than a stepping stone to the domination of Syria and Iraq, as well as Palestine .. Good luck with that. The Russians and Iranians won’t allow that plan to be executed.
Israel signed & honored peace treaties with both Jordan & Egypt even though that meant giving up large areas of Biblical Israel. That shows that Israel is more interested in peace than in territory.
It’s the Palestinians who are much more likely to break a treaty.
“Arafat told South African Muslim leaders that the Oslo accords “fell into the same category as the Treaty of Hudaibiya that was signed by the Prophet Muhammed with the people of Mecca in 628, only to be reneged on a couple of years later when the situation titled in Muhammad’s favor.” Arafat’s words were recorded by a member of the Jewish community who had infiltrated the meeting posing as a Muslim — provoking demands from Israeli officials that he repudiate them. Arafat never did.
Nor did the Palestinian leadership cease its support for terrorism. Arafat and other top PA apparatchiks both approved and funded the creation of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. Arafat’s own personal bodyguard unit, Force 17—trained and equipped by the U.S. and EU as part of Oslo—carried out terror attacks throughout the 1990s and during the Second Intifada, from 2000-2005.”
If there ever is a peace agreement, it should be implemented very slowly. The burden should be on the Palestinians to prove that they really will live in peace.