Mahmoud Abbas has made yet another threat to Israel if he doesn't get all of his demands met. He says he's considering dissolving the Palestinian Authority.
The idea here is that the Palestinians would dissolve the 1993 Oslo Accords, declare that the Palestinian Authority is an "occupied government" and leave Israel with full responsibility of the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria. Abbas is also claiming that he would dissolve the Palestinian security forces and end any cooperation with the IDF.
The chances that Abbas, his sons and his cronies in the Fatah Old Guard would do this are fairly slim. For one thing, they've already declared a long time ago they weren't bound any longer by Oslo, not that they ever abided by it much in the first place. And dissolving the PA essentially means they've given up the game and would be fleeing 'Palestine' on their Jordanian passports to live out their lives on the money they've stolen over the years, over a billion US dollars in the case of Abbas alone if Mohammed Dahlan is to be believed. Without their security forces and the IDF keeping Abbas and his friends from being overthrown by Hamas or other actors, even their physical safety would be at risk.
But let's say Abbas and his PLO friends pull the trigger on this.Would it be a catastrophe or a blessing?
First, Abbas cannot realistically claim to be a 'government under occupation' by any stretch of the imagination. He's an unelected dictator in his 10th year of a four year term in office, and even the UN might have trouble swallowing that, especially if the PA voluntarily dissolved. It would also shut of the faucet on the bonanza of all that donor aid. Whom would the EU, UN and USAid give it to? Some superannuated terrorists in Geneva? And how would they describe it as 'humanitarian aid'? They would have to come to some kind of agreement with - wait for it - Israel.
Second, Israel's situation with 'Palestinian security forces' would pretty much be unchanged. With no one paying their salaries, they'd simply morph into what they've always been, a terrorist militia. They've never actually cooperated with the IDF and Shin Bet to any great degree, and there has never been a single Palestinian ever imprisoned for murdering a Jew. The biggest problem is the three combat brigades trained under President Obama's General Keith Dayton, but again, they've been trained as conventional forces, and with no one paying the bills or coordinating anything they're more than likely to simply divide up by clans, and can be dealt with by the IDF if necessary or by simple containment, as they are now.Also, with the security forces disbanded, rest assured that any Arab in 'Palestine' at that point who had means or ability to go elsewhere would do so. Wouldn't you?
Another possibility this opens up is for a real peace agreement.
The absence of the PA would allow Israel to do what they should have done after 1967 - delineate Israel's borders and annex those territories in Judea and Samaria as part of Israel, under Israeli law. Israel This might also involve transferring Jews outside those borders to the Israeli side and non-citizen Arabs in Israel to the Palestinian side.
Getting the monkey of Abbas and the PLO off their backs would be an absolute godsend for the Palestinians.'Palestine' has always been run as a kleptocracy, and well connected Fatah dons like Jibril Rajoub and Saeb Erekat have always been well fed because the Palestinian Authority literally has its hands in every bit of economic activity in the areas they control, as well as having their hands on the tap controlling who gets the donor aid money and who doesn't. With the PA out of the picture, there's more than a chance that new,more practical and honest leadership might emerge that Israel could actually work with.There must be a few Palestinians who see without Israel as a partner, 'Palestine' is economically impossible anyway.
And if it doesn't Israel could simply relinquish all claim to the areas outside those new Israeli borders and allow them to proclaim themselves a state, or anything else they wanted to. It would be the ultimate divorce, which is always what Israel has needed to resolve this situation anyway.
So let's hope Mahmoud Abbas and the corrupt, violent beast that calls itself the Palestinian Authority is headed for extinction.
Read the rest at The Times of Israel
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