The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR)has
issued a report about demands for reform in the Palestinian Authority.
It correctly notes that there are three separate demands for reform:
- The US and Israel want to see an end to paying terrorists and their families while making the PA responsible for preventing attacks from its territory to murder Jews.
- Europe and Gulf states don't disagree but they want to prioritize an end to PA corruption, an independent judiciary, and fiscal transparency run by a technocratic government.
- Palestinians themselves have completely different demands: they want unity between Hamas and Fatah, and elections where they can choose their leaders.
Then we read this:
A series of interviews with five prominent Palestinian figures reveals a powerful consensus on the nature of reform, highlighting the deep chasm between externally imposed dictates and genuine internal needs. ....
There is a unified rejection of key external demands, which are seen as Israeli-led initiatives adopted by the international community to undermine the Palestinian national project. The call to halt payments to prisoners and martyrs is uniformly condemned as an attempt to criminalize the national struggle. The demand to revise the educational curriculum is viewed as a direct assault on Palestinian identity and historical narrative. ...
Furthermore, the idea of imposing political conditions on parties participating in future elections—such as demanding they accept prior agreements like Oslo—is categorically rejected.
The basic prerequisites for any sort of peace with Israel are dismissed out of hand by Palestinian consensus.
Which goes to prove that any attempt to impose a Palestinian state in the wake of the Gaza war is not only foolhardy, and not only destined to fail, but it is a guarantee for more violence, not less. After all, Hamas controlled Gaza politically; it didn't stop them from attacking.
And Hamas (or other terrorists) would win any election today as well as for the foreseeable future.
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