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Palestinians Avoid Peace Talks on Future State
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
December 31, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Unable to win all concessions with Israel on the
formation of an independent Palestinian state, 79-year-old PLO Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas gave up on U.S.-brokered peace talks April 29. Only six days before, Abbas signed a
unity pact with Israel’s archenemy Hamas—a State Department-branded terrorist
group at war with Israel and responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths. Once Abbas left the peace talks,
Hamas rocket fired from Gaza into Israel escalated, prompting the July 8 to Aug.
26 war, resulting in some 2,200 Palestinian deaths and billion in property
damage. Wherever fingers point
about the causes of the Gaza war, Hamas had gone broke, unable to pay thousands
of civil servants. Going to war with Israel enabled Hamas to wreak billions of devastation on Gaza,
eventually going to Arab donors in Cairo Oct. 16, winning some $5.4 billion in
cash to restart the Gaza government.
From past experience, Hamas knows what happens when it start firing
rockets into Israel. Losing over
2,200 lives and billions in property damage was part of Hamas’s plan to generate
enough donor cash to restart the government.
Now that the PLO joined hands with Hamas, the demands made on Israel for
a final status agreement on an independent Palestinian State are so unrealistic
that it precludes a negotiated settlement.
Deciding to go to the U.N. Security Council to force Israel to return to
the pre-1967 borders was a publicity stunt designed to make an end run on direct
peace talks with Israel. Hamas
hoped that its anti-Israel allies would back a unilateral Security Council
declaration that would get vetoed by the U.S.
U.S.’s U.N. Amb. Samatha Powers complained that the PLO-Hamas entity
sought to avoid the difficult concessions on both sided for a real peace deal.
Failing to pass the resolution, Hamas now pivots to another tactic of
pressuring Israel in the International Criminal Court to give up its current
control of parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Threatening to let the Hague decide
whether or not Israel was guilty in the Gaza War of war crimes prompted more
reactions from the U.S. and Tel Aviv.
“The one who needs to fear the International Criminal Court in the Hague
is the Palestinian Authority, which has a unity government with Hamas, a terror
organization like [the Islamic State group] which commits war crimes,” said
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Calling Palestinian moves “counterproductive and do nothing to further
the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a sovereign and independent
state.” U.S. State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez expressed U.S. opposition
to Palestinian moves.
When the new Republican Congress convenes in January, there will be far
less tolerance of attempts to impose a Palestinian state that compromises
Israeli national security. Speaking
to Netanyahu, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a ranking member of the Armed
Services Committee, said Senate Republicans “have Israel’s back.” Knowing the change back to
unequivocal Israeli backing, the PLO-Hamas entity sought to challenge Israeli
sovereignty in the Security Council and ICC.
“I will badly damage the atmosphere with the very people with who they
ultimately need to make peace,” Vasquez said in statement. Grandstanding at the ICC doesn’t
give the PLO-Hamas entity any more leverage to declare an independent state
only, as the U.S. State Dept. sees it, avoiding the hard work at the peace
table. Hamas still believe they can
destroy Israel and take back all Arab land.
Abbas lamented the Security Council’s rejection, showing no insight into
what’s needed for an independent state.
“We want to complain. There
‘s aggression against us, against our land.
The Security Council disappointed us,” Abbas told Palestinian leadership
in Ramallah. When Abbas refer to
“aggression against us, against our land,” he’s not only referring to the
pre-1967 borders: He’s referring,
like Hamas, to the 1948 borders, driving Israel out of the Middle East. U.S. officials, led by Secretary of
State John Kerry, haven’t dealt with the PLO-Hamas entity that remains at war
with Israel. Hamas wants Israel out
of the Middle East, as do almost every other Arab country. When Kerry faces the new Republican Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations
Committees, he won’t be able ignore the combined PLO-Hamas entity that remains
at war with Israel.
Joining forces with Hamas April 23, Abbas threw in the towel on
U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel.
When his end run failed Dec. 30 in the Security Council, Abbas can no
longer act independently of Hamas.
Abbas let his true feeling out during the six-week-long Gaza War, giving his
blessings to Hamas firing rockets at Israel to its heart’s content, regardless
of the lives lost and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Threatening to go to the ICC could
backfire on Abbas, who showed a callous disregard for Gaza residents. If Abbas goes to the ICC, he’ll have
to prove that Israel started the war and had no right to defend itself against
incoming rocket fire. It’s possible
the ICC will rule against Palestinians on the issue of Israeli occupation. Abbas would have to show proof that Palestinians held sovereign territory in Gaza, the
West Bank and East Jerusalem prior to the 1967 War.
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