Thursday, March 21, 2024
Elder of ZiyonThat is only half the story - because it also showed how unpopular Fatah and the Palestinian Authority are.
When asked who should control Gaza after the war, only 13% selected the PA without Mahmoud Abbas as leader, and 11% selected the PA with Abbas as leader - compared to 59% for Hamas.
Abbas and Fatah's ratings are far, far below that of Hamas for how they've acted during the war.
If presidential elections would be held today, only 5% of those in the West Bank would vote for Abbas.
Yet who is the US speaking to about a potential Palestinian state? Mahmoud Abbas, of course.
The religion of twostatism is fundamentally irrational. It is based on two provably wrong assumptions:that the Fatah-dominated PA is "moderate" and that most Palestinians would accept it as their legitimate government.
A PA-controlled unification of the West Bank and Gaza would fold in quick order and be replaced by more overt terrorists. Which is exactly what happened in Gaza itself.
Many consider the ideal scenario to be for Marwan Barghouti to replace Abbas. Barghouti is a terrorist serving five life terms in Israeli prison and the only person associated with Fatah who has more than single digit popularity. And it is his terrorist bona fides that gives him his popularity, not any interests in peacemaking or nation building.
If the US wants to talk about the day after, fine - but come up with something better than what exists today. Every possible scenario of a Palestinian state would lead to disaster. At best, it would be as dysfunctional as Lebanon, at worst it would be as aligned with Iran and terror as the Houthis.
And the same poll showed the Palestinians wildly approve of the Houthis.
No one is willing to say out loud what the poll shows - and what other polls have shown for years. Hamas is not a terror group that doesn't represent Palestinians: it is the most popular party among Palestinians today. Palestinian support for terrorism is not an anomaly, it is mainstream. It is one of the few things that most Palestinians agree with.
A Palestinian state would be Hamas, or a terror successor to Hamas.
Palestinians have had autonomy for 30 years now. This is longer than the amount of time that the Jewish Agency took on a quasi-governmental role in Palestine before the founding of Israel. Unlike the Jewish Agency, which was ready to create a functioning government on Day 1, the Palestinians have not done a bit of statebuilding, of building institutions, of acting like a responsible member of the world community despite having been given billions in aid and tens of thousands of free expert advice from the EU on governance and responsibility. The only result has been two corrupt leaderships that both treat their own people like dirt. Every bit of responsibility we see - anti-corruption initiatives, for example - are driven by the EU, not by Palestinians.
If there would be a referendum between Haniyeh, Barghouti, Abbas and "forget the election and butcher 2,000 more Jews," the butchering would win in a landslide. Between 70% and 90% of all Palestinians consistently support specific attacks that kill Jewish civilians, for the 20 years that such polls asked those questions. That's far more than have ever supported any political party.
Rewarding terror supporters with a state is the height of immorality, no matter how many millennia Palestinians pretend to have lived on the land.
The two-staters look at everything - even a horrific massacre - as an opportunity for creating a Palestinian state even though it would be a worldwide terrorism hotbed. If there is any chance at all to make things better, we must use this war as an opportunity to change the paradigm altogether of what is possible given 30 years of experience with Palestinians having autonomy over their own lives and throwing everything away.
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