The rocket assault on the south of Israel intensifies. The Israeli Defense Force amasses tanks near Gaza.
Israeli Arabs and West Bankers riot daily.
Kidnappings, killings, terrorism — and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is acting not like the leader of a state, but like the hams of the World Cup, falling on the field, feigning excruciating pain and trying to get a favorable call from the ref — the United Nations, America, whoever has a whistle.
Which points to the central flaw in Secretary of State John Kerry’s failed peace efforts, even as the pro-Kerry We Told You So chorus intensifies.
Kerry supporters have long warned that unless Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed on a dotted line (any dotted line), the region would erupt in violence. Now that it has, they lament the path that history never took.
But this assumes (as Kerry always did) that Abbas was ready to sign a major agreement.
Kerry critics, by contrast, argue that, had the American not pushed an overly ambitious deal that Netanyahu and Abbas obviously weren’t ready for, they might have reached more modest understandings. Those would’ve improved lives in the West Bank, making eruptions like the current one less likely.
As things stand, Palestinians still don’t have a state and, as the chaos intensifies, seem ever less likely to get one anytime soon.
And Abbas isn’t helping. Over the weekend, he asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to launch an international investigation into last week’s horrific kidnapping, burning and murder of 15-year-old Mohammad Abu-Khdeir in north Jerusalem.
Never mind that the Israeli police had already arrested six Jewish youths as suspects. Never mind, too, that every Israeli politician (as well as all Jewish American leaders) had already condemned the murder, and even called the murderers Jewish terrorists.
Or that settler leaders are demanding that Israel bring back capital punishment so it can execute the Israeli perpetrators of such anti-Arab acts.
Doesn’t matter: As always, Abbas wants the United Nations to intervene.
This tactic isn’t doing him much good. Palestinians increasingly accuse Abbas of “collaborating” with Israel; his support in the West Bank and Gaza is plummeting despite the pact he signed with Hamas in May and the new, Hamas-approved “unity” government.
Meanwhile, the false US assumptions about Abbas have been highlight by a thorough retrospective on the Kerry negotions by Barak Ravid of the left-of-center Israeli daily Haaretz.
The entire Obama administration believed that the US position was closer to that of Abbas than to Netanyahu’s, so Kerry & Co. concentrated much of their efforts in Jerusalem, making extreme efforts (some successful) to change the Israeli premier’s mind on key issues.
But in February, as Kerry’s due date for settling the century-old enmity approached, the US negotiators discovered that they’d forgotten to bring the Palestinians on board.
Oops. Abbas was deeply hurt. He turned his back on the whole thing, deciding instead to unite with Hamas and to unilaterally turn Palestine into a UN member state.
Now he has that “state” at Turtle Bay, but he’s losing his grip on the West Bank, while Gaza is burning.
And Hamas? The top suspects in the abduction and gruesome murder of three Israeli teens (the match that lit the latest powder keg) are Hamas members.
And, despite their isolation and weakness, Hamas leaders in Gaza won’t sign off on a ceasefire with Israel, which Egyptian and Turkish officials are attempting to facilitate.
Why? Turns out that the Abbas-Hamas “unity” pact left many details unclear.
Like money: Hamas is broke, its officials unpaid for two months now. War-torn Syria stopped its subsidies, while Egypt’s new government has shut down money- and arms- transfers from that side of the Gaza border.
Qatar recently offered to cover Hamas’ entire back payroll, but Abbas refuses to facilitate the transfer of funds to Gaza; the whole patronage system is collapsing. Frustrated, Hamas leaders channel their anger toward Israel.
Perhaps we can expect no more from a terrorist organization. But Abbas, who’s supposed to represent the last true hope for an Arab-Jewish reconciliation, is stumbling around looking for some referee to throw a few red cards to bail him out.
That’s where Kerry erred all along: His focus was on moving Netanyahu, the elected leader of a well-established democracy that has been America’s most consistent regional ally for decades, even as the other “party” remained committed to nothing but ref-shopping.
Once this round of violence dies down (hopefully with the elimination of Hamas’ arsenal), Washington better rethink its approach.
Before “Palestine” can sign a peace agreement with Israel, it needs to stop looking for the man with the golden whistle, and get ready for statehood instead.
Help Palestinians evolve, or risk the next eruption. Remember: We’re telling you so.