From Asharq al-Awsat:
Despite a number of denials by members of Fatah Movement regarding Israeli press reports that Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas intends on dissolving the Palestinian Authority [PA], sources have stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that President Abbas intends on reverting the situation in the Palestinian territories to what it had been before the creation of the PA in 1994, which means handing over the management affairs of the West Bank to the administration of the Israeli occupation, which means, in other words, dissolving the PA.Some Arabic-language analysts predict that a new intifada will inevitably break out if the PA is dissolved, which is probably true. Also remember that the single biggest employer in the West Bank is the PA, with some 170,000 jobs. Take that away and all of the economic and lifestyle gains that Palestinian Arabs have enjoyed since Oslo will disappear, and unemployment will skyrocket.
Asharq Al-Awsat has learned from a high-ranking Palestinian source that Abbas has recently sent two messages that include this idea to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and the US Administration. This has been confirmed by a source of the Fatah Central Committee, but the difference between the two sources is that the first speaks about written correspondence while the second talks about verbal exchanges.
However, the two sources agreed on the identities of the conveyers of the these two messages since the message to Israel was conveyed by Hussein al-Sheikh, member of Fatah Central Committee and the official in charge of civil affairs in the PA who is responsible for coordination with the Israeli Civil Administration. As for the message to the United States, it was conveyed by Saeb Erekat, the PLO chief negotiator and member of Fatah Central Committee.
According to the high-ranking source, this is an important, serious, sudden step, which President Abbas spoke about, and it will be revealed within a month (which means soon after the Security Council votes on the UN membership request for the state of Palestine, the discussion on which is scheduled to start on 11 November). Abbas spoke about this step in an interview with an Egyptian satellite channels a few days ago, and repeated it in his speech at the Revolutionary Council of Fatah Movement, which began its meetings in Ramallah last Wednesday night and concluded yesterday with a joint-final statement.
During his visit to New York to submit the application of Palestine to the United Nations last September, Abbas told Asharq Al-Awsat that actually a National Authority [PA] does not exist and he is not going to accept to carry out the tasks of a head of municipality.
The contents of these messages are the same, according to the two sources who differed on some words, since the Fatah source said that the two messages do not at all include the phrase of dissolving the PA "because we are against dissolving the PA, which we consider a national achievement, but they speak about the collapse of the PA, and the occupation [authority] assuming its role." The Fatah source added that "Hussein al-Sheikh informed the Israelis to prepare themselves to receive these administrations and what they handed over to us (which means after Oslo Accords) because we do not work for them"
The source added: "Hussein al-Sheikh told the Israelis that we are going to return the 3,000 rifles that you allowed for us (in reference to halting the security coordination)." The official said that "this talk in this way means that the PA does not exist, and therefore, let the occupation authority return to shoulder its responsibilities in the Palestinian territories."
Will the Palestinian Arabs in Area A, who now enjoy essentially all the benefits of a state, be happy with this?
Can you imagine Kurdish leaders in Iraqi Kurdistan dissolving their autonomous region in order to gamble their people's lives to gain a UN seat?
What this all comes down to is more proof, as if more were needed, that the welfare of the Palestinian Arab people has never been a priority for any of their so-called "leaders." They are willing to throw all of their gains away for their own twisted senses of "honor" and "justice." They are anxious to use their own people's lives as pawns on the off chance that by doing so they can hurt Israel. The very concept of compromise with the Jewish state is so unthinkable that they prefer to choose an all-or-nothing scenario that is guaranteed to end up disastrous. And the ones who will be hurt the most are their own people.
It is a truly sick mentality, but one that the West refuses to notice.
Yet it is exactly now that Western leaders must stand up and publicly shame Abbas for even considering the idea. Now is the time for ordinary Palestinian Arabs to undergo their own "spring" where they tell their unelected leaders to stop playing stupid political games with their lives.
(h/t CHA)