Another Blunder Is Underway in Palestine

The US, Israel, the EU, indeed the international community are all co-joined once again to commit yet another blunder in Palestine. The notion that encouraging Palestinian Authority president, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas to embark on what amounts to a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, UDI from the Gaza Strip, which was over-ran by Hamas militants in last week’s factional violence will advance the course of resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is clear blunder if not worse. It compares to countless other blunders that all parties involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict committed in the past.

Mr. Abbas is playing along in this blunder oblivious of the near certainty that it will get the Palestinians, and even the Israelis nowhere. At the most Mr. Abbas and his clique will receive the monetary and other forms of aid that the US, Israel, and the EU have promised to steer their way. They will, as has often been the case, continue to cushion their posh lifestyle with all that aid even as the cause for Palestinian statehood suffers. Perhaps Mr. Abbas needs to be reminded of some hard facts: Himself and his organization, Fatah lost a popular election last November, and clearly couldn’t even hold their own in the violent face-off against Hamas last week. In a neighborhood where muscular tactics matter a lot in politics, their inability to hold their own and preference for relying on external support to remain in the game will certainly not win them much-needed credibility.

Without condoning neither the violence that gave Hamas total control of Gaza last week, nor its resort to certain unpalatable tactics, it will amount to sheer hypocrisy to absolve Abbas, and Fatah of blame over the confrontation with Hamas. Their willingness to lend themselves to geopolitical power play in the region to the point of continuously acting like the election that Hamas won was of no effect was partly responsible for provoking that violent face-off last week. The laughable thing in tha is that Fatah was routed in a face-off that it helped provoke.

It is unrealistic for Mr. Abbas and Fatah to continue to presume that they will find themselves relevant by not encouraging the sort of behavior that would wean Hamas off its hard-line tendencies without fracturing Palestinian unity. When he proclaims that his UDI has created the atmosphere to engage the Israelis in peace negotiation, Mr. Abbas is simply operating from denial. Peace with Israel is absolutely necessary, but his UDI cannot enable it. Peace with Israel cannot obtain in the absence of Palestinian unity. The emphasis on security for Israel as a pre-eminent necessary and sufficient condition for meaningful engagement in the peace process is bound to continuously chart the path of failure. Israel’s security is just one of the several other issues that are involved in the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. In order for any effort to solve the crisis to become meaningful, all of the issues—including economic, well-being for the Palestinian, the return issue, etc.—involved in the crisis ought to be addressed together. Isolating Hamas will not help matters in that regard at all. It will encourage it to remain stuck in bad behavior.

Piling support and aid on Mr. Abbas and Fatah to encourage their UDI will worsen a worsening situation even more.