Once again, we have more evidence that "peace" to Palestinians does not mean what the West thinks it means.
It sounds cynical, but an impartial look at how Palestinians have responded to every peace plan or economic opportunity shows a single consistent pattern:
If it brings Israel closer to being destroyed, they are all for it. If it doesn't, they are opposed.
This is why there are "refugee" camps under Palestinian control. Tweeter Imshin links to an important article by Eldad Beck, who wrote in 2017:
There was another area in which I tried to promote initiatives: improving the living conditions of the residents of the refugee camps. The Palestinian Authority opposed such projects completely. Senior PA officials made it clear to us: "The refugee camps are a political issue, and they will remain in their present situation until a solution is found to the refugee question, that is, their return to their homes."This is why Palestinian leaders have resisted every peace plan that would end the conflict.
This is why Palestinian leaders consciously choose to keep their own people in misery, because to them their people are only pawns to have their outrage directed at Israel.
Arafat formulated the "phased plan" for Israel's destruction in the 1970s and Abbas is slavishly following it, too frightened or too indoctrinated to change it to actually help his people.
The Bahrain workshop, which places no demands on Palestinians, is an object lesson in how the "phased plan" is still being implemented.
A telling detail from Haaretz' coverage:
In the end, the Palestinians were there too. About 15 Palestinians attended, including Ashraf Jabari from Hebron, the only Palestinian scheduled to speak at the conference. They told Haaretz that they came from all parts of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and Jabari may be representing them as a speaker, but they support the conference, too. At one point, the former IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, reserve general Yoav Mordechai, sat with them on the sofas in the hotel lobby. Mordechai attended the conference as a private businessman. Haaretz also saw other Palestinians at the event who were not part of Jabari’s group – but they asked to remain anonymous.
The Palestinian Authority, if they cared about their own people, would have said "we are against the conference but you can attend if you want." Instead, they pressured Palestinian businesspeople not to attend - with implicit threats - so the ones who showed up must remain nameless.
Is this how national leaders who want to build a state act?
Israelis want good relations with the Arab world, including the Palestinians. The PA, though, forbids any ties and even threatens people who want to shop in Jewish-owned supermarkets in the territories.
The Arab world has woken up to the reality of the trash fire that is the Palestinian leadership. They understand the honor/shame dynamic that leads the Palestinians down the path of self-destruction, and they have failed in trying to convince them that they are only hurting their own people. That's why they have largely given up.
On the other hand, the Europeans and liberal Americans still cannot accept the breathtaking cynicism that the Palestinian leaders have shown again and again. The thought process is so utterly foreign to them that they can't accept it as even being possible. Of course Palestinian leaders want what is best for their people! Of course they want a state! How can anyone even conceive otherwise?
This is why the only real support for Palestinian political leaders nowadays comes from the liberal West - not from the Arab world. The liberal worldview is that everyone thinks the same as they do, and counter-evidence is glossed over and ignored.
Look at Bahrain with clear eyes and you can see that the Palestinian leadership is not interested in peace, nor in a state, nor in helping their own people. They only have one overarching political goal in mind - to destroy Israel, one step at a time.
An economically prosperous Palestinian entity is good for Israel and therefore it must be fought.