Does the PA want an Independent Palestinian State?

POLITICS. .

One does have to wonder. Just imagine… all the foreign donations will dry up, taxes will have to be collected, services will have to be provided to the citizens without the deep pockets of the overseas donors and the PA will be held accountable by the taxpayers for their actions.

Why would Mahmoud Abbas want such a nightmare scenario?

Here’s what Abbas wants, spelled out in Palestinian schoolbooks:

plo map l14yK 18464
plo map l14yK 18464

If that's not explicit enough, take a look at the official logos for the various PLO (Fatah) branches:

plologo Y4YIZ 18464
plologo Y4YIZ 18464

And here's the official PLO shoulder patch for Fatah security personnel:

plo t3CqC 18464
plo t3CqC 18464

When you know where to look, it becomes obvious what the intentions of the Palestinian Authority are...

= = =

Abbas has other ideas

Palestinians don’t want direct talks to succeed, as they prefer one-state solution

Mordechai Kedar

Anyone familiar with the sly way of thinking characterizing the current Palestinian leadership knows the truth: Following the show in Washington, they shall find a way to thwart the direct negotiations.

Netanyahu scares them, mostly because of his political ability to secure an agreement. He has no meaningful opposition on the Right, and Kadima is just waiting for a sign from him to join the government, embrace him, and support him should the Right quit the coalition. The Palestinians fear exactly that – because they cannot finalize such deal.

The first reason for this is the refugee problem. Any Palestinian or Arab leader who says something that is interpreted as any kind of concession on the right of return – which would bring millions of Arabs into Israel – knows that he shall immediately be accused of treason, and Hamas will have a field day with it.

Indeed, the education systems in the Palestinian Authority and in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan continue to perpetrate the notion of return in every possible way.

Moreover, the PLO leadership fears that in the case of an agreement that would include “an end to the conflict” and “no more demands,” it will find itself mixed up with Syria and Lebanon, which are interested in getting rid of the 1948 refugees and their descendants. These two countries may even sabotage an agreement by expelling hundreds of thousands of them to Palestine – this is the last thing the Palestinian leadership wants.

The second reason is Jerusalem. Under the leadership of a rightist Israeli government, partitioning the city appears to be an impossible mission, and the Palestinian leadership cannot present its public with a deal that would include less than the dream outline by Arafat: “One Palestinian state with the holy Jerusalem as its capital.”

Living at world’s expense

Another reason is economic. For some years now, the Palestinian Authority has been making a good living off public and government funds from Europe, the US, and the Arab and Islamic world. This has reached the point where Palestinian per capita disposable income is double that of Egypt’s.

The PA leadership fears that the moment an independent Palestinian state is declared, donations would dry up, as the world will expect the Palestinians to start supporting themselves just like any other independent state. The Palestinians, who got used to living at the expense of others, cannot bear to think about the day where they’ll have to make a living on their own.

Finally, instead of an agreement it does not want, the Palestinian leadership sees an alternative. More and more voices, both Israeli and Arab, are calling for a one-state solution, which will be democratic and enable both people – the Jewish Israelis and the Arab Palestinians – to coexist in line with an agreed-upon arrangement, as is the case in Belgium.

Oddly enough, the one-state solution is endorsed in Israel both by the extreme Right, which still clings to the notion of the Greater Israel, and by the radical Left, which has no problem sharing a home with the Arabs, as long as everyone thinks that it’s being enlightened and liberal.

However, it appears that the one-state solution is to the liking of someone else: The Palestinian leadership, as this would spare it the need to concede something in writing.

In one state, the life of Palestinians would be better than today, as they will enjoy civilian rights in a modern state. And if at one point the Jews decide to run away (taking this modern state along with them,) this too would be a blessing – that way, they would gain the entire land without a deal and without concessions. So why enter negotiations?

Dr. Mordechai Keder, the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University

= = =

This idea is nothing new, but it is impractical and unrealistic, aside from the fact that the land area is incapable of supporting about 12 million people.

For a one-state solution to work, years of preparation by both sides are necessary. So much hate has been spouted and so many lies have been told by both sides that to create a single-state solution without adequate educational preparation and enacting of new, applicable laws invites a blood bath.

In addition, infrastructure would have to be prepared. Even without moving a single person or home, water, sewage and drainage systems, electrical grids, roads and services have to be adjusted and/or planned and built—and that’s without even taking into account those arriving, expelled from the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian refugee camps.

No country in the world could absorb a sudden addition of one-half to two-thirds of its initial population. In Israel, when the wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union added less than one million to a population of five million, the healthcare, education, welfare and employment systems almost collapsed. Just imagine what would happen with the addition of 4.5 million Palestinians to the existing 7.5 million Israelis, since the PA infrastructure can’t cope even today.

With such a collapse, the surrounding Arab countries would move in, just as they attempted to do in 1948, when they expected to divide the land between them without concern for any “Palestinians”, Arab or Jewish—there would be no Israel and no Palestine.

Would an Israel/Palestine divided between Egypt, Syria, Jordan and perhaps Lebanon suit Abbas? It would certainly suit a lot of Arab/Muslim leaders—getting rid of the “Zionist entity” and the “Palestinian refugee problem” at one shot is a wet dream as far as they’re concerned.

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