The Two-State Paradigm Is Over - By Israel Kasnett -
U.S. President Donald Trump raised eyebrows recently during a joint press conference in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he backtracked on previous positions he held regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying, "I like a two-state solution. That's what I think works best ... That's my feeling."
Those comments by Trump stood in stark contrast with remarks by the president earlier in his administration, when he said in a meeting in the White House with Netanyahu in February 2017 that he supports whatever solution the two parties decide. "I am looking at two-state, and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one that both parties like."
Nevertheless, Trump quickly backtracked on his remarks last month in New York.
Clarifying his recent comment, Trump explained, "One of the reporters who was screaming asked me about the one state, two-state, and I said I think the two states will happen."
Trump emphasized that he places the ultimate decision in the hands of the parties. "The bottom line is that if the Israelis and Palestinians want two states, I'm OK with that; if they want one state I'm OK with that. I'm the broker."
The comments came amid speculation regarding the release of his administration's highly anticipated Middle East peace plan, which the president has called the "deal of the century." Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, along with special envoy for Mideast negotiation Jason Greenblatt, have traveled to the region numerous times as part of developing their plan.
But experts who have followed the process closely question the feasibility of a comprehensive plan from the Trump administration, including whether or not a two-state solution could come to fruition in the current climate.
A century-long rejection of the two-state solution
Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, told JNS, "It's not up to the president."
He views the idea of a Palestinian state as one that is improbable, at least for the time being. "The Palestinians are incapable of building a state," he said. "The main criteria of a state is the monopoly of control over use of force, and they have lost this monopoly. They cannot sustain state structures."
Turning to the region, Inbar pointed out that a number of Arab countries are failing, and suggested that perhaps the Palestinians would not fair better. "Look at Libya, Syria and Iraq," said Inbar. "They have great difficulty in just maintaining a state!"
Efraim Karsh, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, is more skeptical than Trump and agrees with Inbar.
He told JNS that "neither option seems to be on the cards since the one-state solution is unthinkable for Israel, whereas the two-state solution has been categorically rejected by the Palestinians. The 'one-state solution,' which has been the Arab position since the 1930s, envisages the transformation of Palestine into an Arab/Muslim state in which Jews will be reduced to a position of permanent 'tolerated minority' [or dhimmis, second-class citizens, as this status has been known throughout Islamic history]. Obviously, this option, which means the destruction of the State of Israel, is unacceptable for Israeli Jews."
Karsh decried the common misperception that Israel's rightful presence in Judea and Samaria perpetuates the Arab-Israeli conflict. "The left-wing fearmongering that Israel is rapidly sliding to this situation due to its continued 'occupation' of the territories is a red herring for the simple reason that since the beginning of 1996--and certainly following the completion of the redeployment from Hebron in January 1997--there has been no occupation.
Rather, 99 percent of the Palestinian population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have lived the rule of the Palestinian Authority [and Hamas in Gaza since 2007]. Under no circumstances will Israel agree to reassume control of this population, let alone make it fully-fledged Israeli citizens."
Karsh emphasized that it is continued Palestinian rejectionism that lies at the root of the problem. "On the other hand, while a de facto two-, or rather, three-state solution has effectively existed for quite some time--Hamas's Gaza state since 2007, the Palestinian Authority-controlled Areas A & B in the West Bank, and Israel--the Palestinians are certain to continue using the red herring of 'occupation' so long as Israel exists.
For while most Western observers apply the term 'occupation' to Israel's control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, captured during the June 1967 war, for Palestinians and Arabs, the Israeli presence in these territories represents only the latest chapter in an uninterrupted story of 'occupations' dating back to the very creation of Israel on 'stolen' land. Hence, their century-long rejection of the two-state solution."
"It doesn't matter what the international community wants," stressed Inbar. "The Palestinians are incapable of having a state. Soon, there will be a violent struggle over who will be the next leader of the Palestinian Authority. It's a moot question. The two-state paradigm is over. I don't know what the alternative is, but we will not see a Palestinian state."
He added that there is "growing skepticism" around the world of the Palestinians' ability even to create and sustain an independent state.
For Inbar, Israel would be better off not intensely pursuing a one-state or two-state solution that would just introduce more complications, especially if the Palestinians do not intend to live in peace alongside Israel.
"Sometimes," he said, "ambiguity serves us better than a clear solution."
The Palestinian Battle against a Plan that Does Not Exist - by Khaled Abu Toameh -
No Palestinian -- or anyone else for that matter -- has been made privy to US President Donald J. Trump's long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East, which has also been referred to as the "deal of the century." This minor detail however, has not prevented the Palestinians from rejecting the rumored plan, on the pretext that it is aimed at "liquidating" the Palestinian cause and national rights.
Hardly a day passes without Palestinian leaders and officials across the political spectrum behaving as if they know every detail of the "deal of the century." The Palestinians are not even prepared to wait until the US administration actually presents a plan.
The Palestinian rejection of a yet-to-be-announced peace plan should not surprise anyone. The Palestinians will never accept any plan from a US administration they consider extremely "hostile" to the Palestinians and "biased" in favor of Israel.
Even before Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017, the Palestinians had made up their minds: As Trump administration is on the side of Israel, and its policies seem mainly designed to appease and strengthen Israel, the Palestinians apparently decided that they should boycott the US administration. This boycott is unlikely to end in the foreseeable future, especially in light of continued Palestinian denunciations of the US administration and its policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinians, it appears, have become hostage to their own vitriolic rhetoric. It is hard to see how after nearly a year of attacks on the Trump administration, any Palestinian leader would be able to accept the proposed "deal of the century," no matter what is in it, or to have any dealings with US officials. The massive anti-US campaign that the Palestinian leaders have been waging for the past few months in the media and every available platform has made it impossible, if not dangerous, for any Palestinian leader to do business with the Trump administration.
While Palestinian hatred for Trump and his administration does not come as a surprise, what is strange is that the two Palestinians factions -- Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip -- are now using the President Trump's awaited plan to throw mud at one another.
The two rival Palestinian parties have been at each other's throats for many years and are still engaged in a power struggle. Hamas and Fatah hate each other so much that they are even prepared to accuse each other of "collaborating with the enemies," America and Israel.
President Trump is most likely unaware that he has secret Palestinian "agents" working for him in Fatah and Hamas. This is only true, of course, if one is to take seriously the mutual accusations made by Fatah and Hamas.
Welcome to the Palestinians' Theater of the Absurd, where fabrication, lies and conspiracy theories have long been part of the fabric of Palestinian culture and society.
It is a sign of the times that Fatah, ruled by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, would accuse Hamas of being in collusion with an Israeli-American plot "to destroy the Palestinian national project." In other words, Fatah is telling the world that Hamas -- an Islamist movement that has killed and injured thousands of Jews and many others since its establishment three decades ago -- is now working with the enemies of the Palestinians against the interests of its own people.
Consider, for example, the reaction of the Fatah and its leaders to the recent effort to solve the power shortage in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave of Gaza. Qatar paid for the fuel needed to keep the power plant there running, while Israel facilitated the delivery of the fuel with the help of the United Nations. Outraged by the aid to the Gaza Strip, Abbas's Fatah claimed that Hamas was "practically implementing the deal of the century." Fatah seems convinced that Trump's plan aims at separating the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and establishing an independent Palestinian state only in the Gaza Strip. Fatah and its leader, Abbas, claim that Hamas's readiness to conduct indirect negotiations with Israel -- about a truce and humanitarian and economic aid to the Gaza Strip -- facilitates the US administration's goal of "consolidating" the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
According to a statement issued by Fatah in Ramallah, the (unseen) "deal of the century" requires Palestinians to "give up Jerusalem and the right of return and the right for compensation for Palestinian refugees." Trump's plan, according to Fatah's imagination, also envisages separating the West Bank from the Gaza Strip "to prevent the establishment of an independent and sovereign state, on the pre-1967 armistice lines, with Jerusalem as its capital."
What Fatah is telling everyone is that Hamas leaders are traitors because they agreed to accept Qatari-funded fuel for the power plant in the Gaza Strip. The Fatah leaders also appear to want Palestinians and the rest of the world to believe that by accepting the fuel and conducting indirect negotiations with Israel to reach a truce agreement in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has "given up the rights of the Palestinians."
No one knows on what basis Fatah is making these claims about a plan that does not yet even exist. Perhaps these allegations can be traced to unconfirmed reports in various Arab and Western media outlets. Evidently, the Palestinians have taken these speculations as facts and have built entire arguments around them.
In the West Bank, the PLO Executive Committee, another Ramallah-based Palestinian body dominated by Abbas loyalists, echoed the same charge against Hamas. After a meeting on October 11, the committee "affirmed its rejection of the plan to separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank" as part of the "deal of the century." Again, this is an accusation by Abbas and his officials that is aimed at convincing Palestinians that Hamas is involved in a conspiracy against them and their rights. Abbas evidently wants the world to believe that Hamas is working for Trump and Israel.
Hamas, for its part, wants Palestinians to believe that if anyone is part of the Trump administration's "conspiracy," it is Abbas and his Fatah faction. Hamas's message to the Palestinians basically boils down to this: "We're not the traitors working with Israel and Trump. The real traitors are Abbas and his Fatah, who are imposing economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip and obstructing efforts to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians."
"The Palestinian Authority," said Hamas spokesman Hazel Qassem, "has paved the way for the implementation of the US vision for liquidating the Palestinian cause". He was referring to Abbas's refusal to lift the economic and financial sanctions which the PA president imposed on the Gaza Strip last year, apparently as part of an attempt to undermine Hamas.
The Trump administration would doubtless be overjoyed to hear that Hamas and Fatah have become "collaborators" and "agents" working with the US and Israel. On the one hand, however, Fatah and Hamas say they are strongly opposed to Trump's upcoming peace plan. On the other, the two rival Palestinians parties are now accusing each other of collaborating with the Trump administration to help him pass his upcoming "deal of the century."
Guess who gets caught in the crossfire -- again? The Palestinians. It is they who continue to pay the price for the vicious strife between their "leaders" -- in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Israel & So-Called 'Social Justice' - By Justin Amler -
Social-justice warriors and progressives went berserk this week when Israel exercised its right, as any sovereign nation, to determine who enters its borders. It barred an anti Israeli American student from entering the country and ordered her deported over her alleged support for anti-Israel boycott efforts.
There are few places on earth whose very mention causes anger hives to break out, rivers of rage to flow and violent marches of madness to occur, like one small country on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
That place, of course, is Israel--a country, according to some fanciful media, that is a kind of mammoth superstate that encompasses most of the Middle East, continually gobbling up surrounding lands and expelling its people.
It is amazing that there is more time devoted by supposed "human rights" groups, United Nations resolutions and other so-called "freedom" movements, on this country than all other countries on earth combined.
That means that North Korea, who starves its people; African countries, who ignore their people; Arab regimes, who execute their people--all fail to garner the kind of outrage reserved only for this tiny Jewish state. A state 19 times smaller than California and a 103 times smaller than Saudi Arabia.
Of course, no country is ever above criticism, yet when it comes to Israel, the social justice that so many of its critics say they crave morphs all too easily into anti-social justice.
A case in point is the BDS movement who feature the words, "Freedom, Justice, Equality" under their logo, yet fail to pursue any of those goals. They claim to be a group devoted to freedom for "Palestinian" Arabs, yet not once have we ever seen them actually helping the people they are so "devoted" to.
Think about it. Have you ever heard of them doing something, anything, positive or beneficial to the very people in whose name they claim to be carrying out their activities? While "Palestinians" are dying in refugee camps in Syria and denied access to jobs, civil rights and equality under every Arab country, this movement is more concerned with disrupting music festivals that feature Jews or Israelis, using massive intimidation, threats, bullying and intense social-media campaigns.
Naturally, they will dismiss claims they are anti-Semitic, yet that is easily debunked, such as when they targeted Jewish singer Matisyahu at a Spanish music festival, threatening him and the festival organizers itself if he played--and he isn't even Israeli! Singling out Jews for criticism or holding them to a different standard is one of the fundamental canards of historical anti-Semitism.
BDS is a group more interested in taking cherry tomatoes off supermarket shelves than helping ordinary "Palestinians" feed and take care of themselves. Every 'success' of theirs means more suffering for those ordinary Arabs who are just trying to make a living.
This was perfectly illustrated when they successfully forced the Israeli company SodaStream to relocate from their Judea and Samaria location, forcing thousands of Arabs citizens of the Palestinian Authority to lose their jobs.
The hypocrisy of the leaders and advocates of this movement is so blatant, further evidenced by BDS leader Omar Barghouti, who studied at Tel Aviv University in the same country he wants to boycott! Or how about fierce Israeli critic, Roger Waters, who has no problem playing with great enthusiasm in Russia--not exactly known as the gold standard in human rights.
Then there are the rising young stars of the Democratic Party--young and hip and good-looking millennials, whose anti-Israel stance will guarantee their status as social justice warriors.
Stars such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who openly criticizes Israel for "the occupation of Palestine" yet in a PBS interview admits she actually knows nothing about Israel!
Or how about Julia Salazar, the pro-BDS "Jewish" successful candidate, who it turns out isn't even Jewish! With Julia, every day is a new adventure as each lie begins to unravel with the frequency of a day time soap opera scandal.
I suppose there's a romantic connotation for someone who fights for justice, someone who fights for freedom, someone who fights for the little guy. And why not? We all like to believe in the common man or the common woman taking on those mighty institutions who would roll over your rights and roll over your freedoms without so much as battering an eyelid.
When that justice is so misaligned, so misrepresented and so distorted, it fails to represent real justice, instead becoming a warped reality of a false justice.
Israel is the perfect example of this distortion, for there are few countries who contribute more to the well-being of the world in fields such as farming and irrigation and fighting poverty and so many other endeavors than Israel, yet there are also few countries that are scrutinized more, misjudged more and unfairly misrepresented than Israel.
Real issues affecting the entire human race are being ignored due to this hateful obsession--an obsession that would rather see the destruction of all of humanity than support for the Jewish homeland.
So, now I say it's time ...
Time to tackle the lack of human rights in Arab countries.
Time to deal with the lack of clean drinking water in African states.
Time to account for the lack of accountability for U.S. money spent on despotic regimes.
Time to sanction the ongoing terrorism perpetrated by groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Authority.
But most importantly, it's time for the world to get "unwoke" and wake up instead.
One State - Jim Fletcher - Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com
The latest murder of Israelis by Palestinians is much more than the final straw. It should have been a final straw the first time it happened, especially after the charade of Oslo.
Daniel Greenfield has written a fine piece on the subject at Frontpage, addressing mostly a Jewish audience.
My goal is to address the same subject among Christian supporters of Israel.
Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, and Ziv Hajbi were tied up by a Palestinian terrorist, then shot at close range this week. The killer, Ashraf Walid Suleiman, remains at large after the murders in the Barkan Industrial Zone.
According to a report from Arutz Sheva:
"MDA medics David Baruchi and Neria Ketua described the scene. 'When we arrived, there was chaos at the scene. People shouted that there were wounded persons inside, they led us in to one of the rooms, we saw a man and woman of about 30 lying unconscious without pulse and not breathing. We undertook medical checks, they had no vital signs and we were forced to confirm their deaths.'"
"We searched the scene and found another 54 year old woman under one of the tables. She was fully responsive with a gunshot wound to her upper body. With the help of MDA EMT Hadas Wilps, we extricated her and provided lifesaving medical treatment including hemorrhage control, medications, and we evacuated her to Belinson with severe yet stable injuries. During the evacuation, she was interacting with us, and was able to recount the incident. She also requested that we notify her family, which we did."
The area where the two were murdered has been considered a place where Arabs and Israelis can coexist.
Guess not.
As Greenfield writes:
"The two state solution isn't peace. The PLO and Hamas have never been at peace with Israel. It's two Rabbis murdered in January and February. It's a receptionist wondering until the last moment whether she will make it home to her baby. It's Hava Roizen, a Russian immigrant from the Soviet Union, who worked as a photographer, hit by a car. And it's the terror victims of tomorrow. And the day after."
The two-state solution isn't peace.
I'm honestly shocked at those pro Israel Christian leaders who support a two-state solution.
To what purpose?
Any "state of Palestine" would be used for further bases of operation by Hamas and the PLO, the latter still led by strongman Mahmoud Abbas, a butcher and fiend who shouts that his terror organization will continue to pay killers-even at the expense of the needs of law-abiding people.
This is madness.
Any leader not vehemently condemning these murders is no friend of Israel or Jews anywhere. The murder of Jews anywhere, for any reason, is completely unacceptable.
There is a real desire on the part of "the Right" to be overly polite and agreeable. I don't hear much anger from pro Israel Christian leaders about these murders. It's sickening.
In 2002, I went to the scene of a bus bombing in Jerusalem. Bodies were hanging out of windows; the whole bus was torched.
Last year, I visited Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv and saw firsthand the carnage caused by these Palestinian demons whose sole purpose in life is to inflict pain.
May they be removed from the earth.
This morning on Facebook, an anti-Christian Zionist Christian bemoaned the incarceration of "boycott" activists in Israel. I've wondered for years why these useful idiots are even allowed into the country.
Have you noticed that critics of Israel take issue with the inconvenience to anarchists and Jew-haters? And they clamp their mouths shut when Jews are murdered?
This is fiendish and unacceptable.
I will never support a two-state solution.
A young mother was tied up then shot? I hope she is avenged.
Pro Israel friends who do not place Jewish life above Palestinian life are not friends, for me. I will go my own way.
We are seeing similar problems in this country. Decades of appeasing evil and being deferential have gotten us to a place where senators are hounded from restaurants, and Democrats call for assassinations.
If civil war is forced, then civil war it will be.
For the record, I support only the state of Israel in the Middle East. There are vast territories uninhabited that the Palestinian Arabs can go live in. Let them stew in their fetid villages and desert holes.
If you finish this column and aren't thinking of the kids of Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi first, you're doing it wrong.
Hamas Probing Israel's Defenses With Latest Border Incursion - By Yoni Ben Menachem -
Friday was particularly violent on the border of the Gaza Strip. Around 15,000 people participated in demonstrations in which seven Palestinians were killed and 250 wounded. An especially severe incident occurred in the vicinity of Bureij in central Gaza.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh made a surprise appearance at one of the demonstrations, fanning the flames further.
Hamas announced the next day that it was responding to violent incidents on the Gaza border, stating "the Palestinian people have a strategic arsenal of unending heroism and fighting ability, which is making the Occupation's attempt to conquer it impossible."
The announcement continued: "The great struggle at the Gaza border expresses real progress in standing against the enemy at point-blank range."
From an IDF investigation, it emerged that Palestinians detonated a large explosive device on the border fence. The explosives blew a large hole in the fence, through which around 20 terrorists infiltrated into Israel under the cover of a dense cloud of smoke created by burning tires.
An IDF force fired at them to push them back. Most of them turned back into Gaza, but three of them continued to move on toward a military outpost, where they were shot and killed.
It appears that this was an attempt to test the IDF's reaction to see if a deadly attack or kidnapping of soldiers on the Gaza border could be carried out to change the balance of the conflict, giving Hamas the upper hand. After abducting soldiers, the Palestinians would demand the complete removal of the embargo on the Gaza Strip.
The violent events at the Gaza border are no surprise. Anyone who believed that the diplomatic-security measure of allowing Qatari industrial fuel into the Gaza Strip to increasing the electricity supply would calm the situation was much mistaken. Appetite increases with food, and Hamas did not launch its "March of Return" war of attrition against Israel on March 30 just to be satisfied with the minor step of increasing the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas interpreted the entrance of Qatari industrial fuel to Gaza as the beginning of Israel's capitulation. But six months of ineffective demonstrations have not achieved anything connected with easing the embargo. Therefore, Hamas has decided to increase military pressure on Israel.
The ultimate goal of Hamas has not changed. It is the complete removal of the Israeli embargo, and until this is achieved the violent demonstrations at the border fence will continue.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced the halt of industrial fuel supplies into Gaza in response to the violence at the border on the weekend. This step follows a restriction on the fishing zones permitted to Gaza fishermen, but these measures will not put a stop to Hamas's strategic decision to continue the demonstrations.
An attempt to gain bargaining chips
Over the past few weeks, Hamas has intensified the violence on the border after the failure of talks with Egyptian intelligence services in Cairo about reconciliation and calm and after the refusal of P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas to remove the sanctions that he imposed on the Gaza Strip.
The number of participants in the demonstrations has risen to 20,000 people. Extensive use has been made of lethal tactics such as throwing explosive charges and grenades at IDF soldiers, and there has been a rise in terror attacks caused by sending incendiary balloons and kites into Israel.
At the same time, Hamas supplemented its burning tires and started to use smoke generators at the border to create heavy smoke screens to shield Gazan rioters and allow them to get closer to the border fence and infiltrate into Israel.
Hamas has turned the violent demonstrations at the Gaza border into 24/7 events to get the IDF soldiers accustomed to the ongoing presence of Palestinian activists at the fence, including at night.
These nightly activities are carried out by a special unit called the "night confusion units," which burn tires, sound sirens, blind IDF soldiers with lasers and more.
Hamas's overall objective is to take the IDF by surprise by blowing up the fence at several points and infiltrating into Israeli territory to harm IDF soldiers or abduct them and take them into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is making significant efforts to take the IDF by surprise. The precedent of the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011--in which one Israeli soldier was traded for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners--has strengthened the feeling among Hamas that Israel is prepared to pay a heavy price for bringing back captured soldiers alive.
Therefore, the objective of Hamas is to cut through the fence under a heavy smokescreen, creating a diversion so that it can get into Israeli territory and kidnap soldiers from their outposts along the border fence.
At the same time, under the ground, Hamas continues its tunnel digging. On Oct. 11, Israel uncovered and destroyed another Gaza tunnel (the 15th in the last year) that penetrated 100 meters into Israeli territory. Using such a tunnel in 2006, Hamas abducted Shalit.
Attrition of the IDF
In the internal dispute among the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, the winning side has been those who believe that the border demonstrations should not be moderated to reduce the injuries among Palestinian youth from IDF fire. They seek to keep the nature of the demonstrations "peaceful and non-violent" to gain the support of the international community.
Hamas has concluded that the absence of violent friction with the IDF reduces pressure on Israel, and therefore the demonstrations must be extreme.
The establishment of the "night confusion units" is intended to bother the IDF at all hours of the day and night, making it harder for it to strike at the demonstrators operating under cover of darkness.
Sources in Hamas claim that the continuing "March of Return" campaign is disturbing the sense of security of the residents of the Israeli communities bordering Gaza, deterring more "settlers" from coming to live in the towns along the border. This way, the campaign is scuppering Israel's plans to expand the population of the Negev and the southern parts of the country.
Hamas believes that the campaign is also strengthening its position in Palestinian society and is getting the international community to understand that the Palestinian problem is still alive and that the residents of Gaza need to receive their full rights.
The Hamas leadership is not interested in an all-out military confrontation with Israel. The Gaza street is strongly opposed to this, and the Hamas leadership understands that a new war with Israel will result in substantial damage to the organization. Therefore, the idea is to continue with the "March of Return" campaign, which will not cost the organization too much and will maintain its rule without paying too high a price for terror.
Why Palestinians Do Not Have a Parliament - by Khaled Abu Toameh -
Parliaments, among the strongest manifestations of a democracy, represent the electorate, enact laws and oversee the government through hearings and inquiries.
Apparently, this does not apply to the Palestinians, who, as a result of the power struggle between Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, have, for the past 11 years, been without a functioning parliament.
The Palestinian Authority's unicameral legislature is the 132-member Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Both the PA and PLC were established after the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993. The first Palestinian legislative election took place in January 1996. The second, and last, election took place in January 2006; it resulted in a victory for Hamas.
In 2007, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip and toppled the Palestinian Authority regime that was there. Since then, the Palestinian parliament has not been functioning properly, although Hamas legislators sometimes meet separately in the Gaza Strip. In the absence of a functioning parliament, Abbas has been passing laws by "presidential decree." Several Palestinians have questioned their legality and accused the Palestinian leader of violating Palestinian Basic Law.
Abbas has effectively replaced the PLC as the sole lawmaker for the Palestinians. This situation has turned him into an autocratic and totalitarian president who makes decisions without being held accountable by anyone, including members of the Palestinian parliament.
Worse, Abbas has also been using his powers to punish those members of parliament who dare to criticize him or voice opposition to his policies. In 2016, for instance, Abbas stripped five "rebellious" legislators of their parliamentary immunity: Mohammed Dahlan, Shami al-Shami, Najaf Abu Bakr, Nasser Juma'ah and Jamal Tirawi.
"Abbas's decision is in violation of the Palestinian Basic law, which calls for the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial authorities," commented Abu Bakr. "We respect the judicial system and the law. We reject any attempt to exploit the law to tamper with the judiciary."
Abbas, for his part, does not like the PLC because he knows that many of its Fatah and Hamas members are critical of him and his policies. As Abbas does not tolerate criticism particularly well, he doubtless feels more comfortable delivering speeches at international forums such as the United Nations, the European Parliament and his own Fatah and PLO institutions than at the Palestinian parliament. The others are places where no one takes him to task for his tyranny.
The PLO and Fatah institutions Abbas frequently addresses are dominated by his loyalists, many of whom are also on his payroll. Who needs a parliament when one has the PLO Executive Committee, the PLO Central Council and the Fatah Central Committee, whose members can be counted on blindly to back Abbas and his decisions? The three Palestinian bodies have, in fact, replaced the PLC as the key decision-making institutions of the Palestinians. However, the only decisions these bodies take are ones that fully support Abbas in everything he says and does.
In the absence of a parliament, the Palestinians have no address to express their grievances. They cannot write to or phone their elected legislators to complain about anything. All they can do is resort to social media, especially Facebook, to air their views. Even then, the Palestinians are not safe from the long arm of the Palestinian security forces. In the past few years, scores of Palestinians have been harassed, arrested and interrogated by Abbas's security forces for posting critical comments on Facebook.
On October 14, Abbas loyalists took yet another step that will further undermine the Palestinians' chances of ever becoming a free and democratic society that would include a functioning and vibrant parliament with an open debate. The Fatah Revolutionary Council, another significant body dominated by Abbas loyalists, recommended that the Palestinian president dissolve the PLC and prepare for general elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This recommendation, by unelected Fatah officials against elected members of the Palestinian parliament, was seen both as undemocratic on legal and parliamentary grounds, and as undermining the Palestinians' confidence in Abbas and the Palestinian leadership.
Critics of Abbas and legal experts have condemned the Fatah recommendation to dissolve the Palestinian parliament. They argue that the move is not aimed at bringing reform and democracy, but to allow Abbas and Fatah to get rid of the PLC.
Hasan Khraisheh, a deputy speaker of the PLC, said that neither Abbas nor Fatah was authorized to dissolve the parliament. "The PLC was elected by the Palestinian people, and it can't be dissolved by the Fatah Revolutionary Council, which was not elected by the people," he argued. "Dissolving the parliament means dissolving the Palestinian Authority, which also means dissolving President Abbas himself."
The latest move to dissolve the PLC is yet another attempt by Abbas to silence his critics and prevent an open debate among Palestinians about his policies. In the absence of a parliament, for example there is no debate about Abbas's policy towards his rivals in Hamas or his relations with the US and Israel. His aides claim that the decision to dissolve the PLC is aimed at preparing for long overdue presidential and parliamentary elections. However, the continued power struggle between Abbas and Hamas makes it impossible to hold free and fair elections. The rival parties do not trust each other, so it is hard to see how, under the current circumstances, when they are at each other's throats, they would ever agree to hold such elections.
For the past 11 years, because of the infighting between Hamas and Fatah and because of Abbas's continued attempt to bypass and undermine the Palestinian legislators, the Palestinian parliament has been dying . Now, the Fatah recommendation to dissolve it completely has driven the final nail into the parliament's coffin. By sidelining the PLC, Abbas and his loyalists have destroyed any dream the Palestinians ever had of having a functioning parliament.
By a stroke of fate, the Fatah move to dissolve the PLC came hours before the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, opened its winter session in Jerusalem.
All that is left, therefore, for the Palestinians to do is envy Israel, which has a vibrant parliament where lawmakers, including Arab MPs, are free to criticize and denounce Israeli government leaders and policies without fear of intimidation and retribution. For now, it seems the Palestinians will have to live with a dictatorship and autocratic leaders who are doing their utmost to deprive their people of democracy, transparency and accountability.
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