Do We Have to ‘Hijack Your Planes’ Again?
Unable to control a wave of violence in Israel or maintain security in the West Bank, the rudderless, frustrated Palestinian Authority is out of ideas.
BY FEBRUARY 11, 2016
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The message from the top Palestinian leadership, delivered with more than a hint of panic and desperation, seems to be this: You’ll miss us when we’re gone.
That sentiment came from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who gathered a group of Israeli journalists in Ramallah last month to remind them that he was their last best hope for a negotiated settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. His intelligence chief, Majid Faraj, also gave a rare interviewto warn — perhaps inaccurately — that the Islamic State could one day seize power in the occupied territories.
And there was the longtime Palestinian diplomat who wondered on live television whether his people would have to “hijack your planes” again to get the West interested in the Palestinian cause. It was a lament, not a threat. “You always wait for things to reach boiling point and explode, causing you harm, before you intervene to end the crimes and violations,” said Nabil Shaath, addressing the Western world.
It’s not a major Israeli military offensive in the West Bank or a new round of settlements that the Palestinian leadership fears, it’s a continuation of the slowly fraying status. The United States and Europe are preoccupied with the disaster in Syria; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a quaint distraction. Four months of near-daily Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks — the Third Intifada, as some call it — have simply become a grim part of the everyday routine.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created by the 1993 Oslo Accords as an interim measure, a five-year stepping stone on the path to statehood. Decades later, the diplomatic track is in a persistent vegetative state — and the PA seems to have little purpose beyond security cooperation with Israel. “Let’s be honest.
The peace process is as stuck as I’ve ever seen it,” said one longtime European diplomat.
The PA, in other words, has nothing left to offer Palestinians, nearly half of whom want to dissolve the body, according to a recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. The PA can’t claim to represent the desires of the Palestinian electorate — Abbas’s own term as president expired seven years ago. More troubling, to officials on both sides, is the handful of Palestinian police officers who have recently gone rogue and turned their guns against Israeli soldiers, a trend they fear will accelerate at a time of drift and stagnation.
And there was the longtime Palestinian diplomat who wondered on live television whether his people would have to “hijack your planes” again to get the West interested in the Palestinian cause. It was a lament, not a threat. “You always wait for things to reach boiling point and explode, causing you harm, before you intervene to end the crimes and violations,” said Nabil Shaath, addressing the Western world.
It’s not a major Israeli military offensive in the West Bank or a new round of settlements that the Palestinian leadership fears, it’s a continuation of the slowly fraying status. The United States and Europe are preoccupied with the disaster in Syria; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a quaint distraction. Four months of near-daily Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks — the Third Intifada, as some call it — have simply become a grim part of the everyday routine.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created by the 1993 Oslo Accords as an interim measure, a five-year stepping stone on the path to statehood. Decades later, the diplomatic track is in a persistent vegetative state — and the PA seems to have little purpose beyond security cooperation with Israel. “Let’s be honest.
The peace process is as stuck as I’ve ever seen it,” said one longtime European diplomat.
The PA, in other words, has nothing left to offer Palestinians, nearly half of whom want to dissolve the body, according to a recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. The PA can’t claim to represent the desires of the Palestinian electorate — Abbas’s own term as president expired seven years ago. More troubling, to officials on both sides, is the handful of Palestinian police officers who have recently gone rogue and turned their guns against Israeli soldiers, a trend they fear will accelerate at a time of drift and stagnation.
