Are We Witnessing the End of the Palestinian Authority?

In the past year, we have seen a crumbling of the Palestinian Authority’s level of control over the West Bank. The PA is seen by many Palestinians as a corrupt organization that no longer represents their interests. Recent events in Nablus and Jenin suggest the possibility of a change in the status quo and an end to the PA-Israel order.

Mahmoud Abbas’s Demands: A Decree of Israel’s Surrender

The demands issued by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas show a clear intention to turn the clock back. Israel cannot accept these dictates, which would have been rejected out of hand by Yitzhak Rabin.

Will Violence Erupt If Abbas Cancels the Palestinian Elections?

Hamas and others are threatening violence if Mahmoud Abbas cancels the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council scheduled for May 22. However, Google Trends data on the declining popularity of both Hamas and Fatah suggest that an eruption of violence is unlikely.

Is the Phrase “State of Palestine” Catching On?

In 2013, Mahmoud Abbas proclaimed that henceforth the Palestinian Authority would be called the “State of Palestine.” It is worth noting how successful he has been in popularizing the phrase, and among whom.

Now It’s the Turn of the Palestinian Voter

The decree signed on January 15 by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas announcing elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council on May 22 and to the PA presidency on July 31 is an attempt to remind the international community, and especially the new US administration, of the continued relevance of the Palestinian problem.

“The Struggle for Palestine”

“The struggle for Palestine” has long been an axiomatic slogan in the Arab-Palestinian narrative and continues to be used to this day to galvanize the masses—but as the Middle East changes, the power of the phrase may be diminishing.

The Real Palestinian Pandemic: Political Sclerosis

A generation-old political sclerosis among the Palestinians is likely to end in anarchy and warlords unless some form of autonomy with links to Jordan is supported by the international community.

Mahmoud Abbas As a Strategic Threat

The diplomatic campaign Mahmoud Abbas has been waging for a decade and a half is no less dangerous to Israel than the “armed struggle” led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. With the growing influence of Iran and the advent of a new array of threats on Israel’s borders to the north and south, renewing negotiations with Abbas on the basis of the Barak-Olmert framework would entail an existential threat to Israel.

Handing Gaza to Abbas Will Solve Nothing

Overthrowing Hamas and handing rule in Gaza to Mahmoud Abbas will not bring about a solution to the Gaza problem. In fact, it was Yasser Arafat, Abbas’s predecessor as PLO leader, who transformed Gaza into an ineradicable terrorist hotbed by flouting the Oslo Accords that he had signed. The solution to the Gaza problem does not lie in Ramallah but rather in the Strip’s historic hinterland – the Sinai Peninsula.

Israel and Abbas: Security Cooperation + Terrorism

At one and the same time, the PA indirectly encourages terrorism while pursuing extensive security cooperation with Israel to quell it. Israel accepts this contradictory framework and will probably continue to do so, even during the succession crisis that is likely to follow Abbas’s demise.