Will the president carry out his threats? and when?!

Written by: Dr. Ibrahim Abrash

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly last September, President Abu Mazen acknowledged, albeit belatedly and vaguely, that the political settlement process entitled the Oslo Accords and the two-state solution had reached a dead end. It was an acknowledgment due to Israeli practices and international inaction, and he repeated that in his speech on the eleventh of November. On the seventeenth anniversary of the martyrdom of Abu Ammar, and he talked about the issue during the funeral of Shirin Abu Aqleh, and finally after the march of the Jewish flags and the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has become almost daily, calling on the international community to intervene and the Israeli occupation authorities to return to negotiations and abide by the signed agreements and resolutions of international legitimacy and the two-state solution within a year One, and as a veiled threat, he hinted at abandoning the Oslo Accords and all associated obligations if Israel did not abide by that.

Someone might say that Abu Mazen, with this statement, wants to calm the state of popular anger and absolve himself of responsibility for what happened, and that he is still betting on the international system and the political settlement, and that his threats have no value because the political system and the entire Palestinian situation are not qualified for the options that the president is talking about. .... .

However, if we assume the existence of good intentions and the will to change the approach, then the president's words include, as we mentioned previously, an admission of the failure of the previous policies and strategies of the political system and a preparation for a strategic review, even if Hamas and its affiliated parties also admitted their mistakes and the failure of their policies and stopped arrogance and obstinacy, which is a failure Make sure, after 15 lean years of its rule over the Gaza Strip, that it has become possible to return to a national dialogue that is not limited to the existing parties, but includes all Palestinians, including parties, civil society institutions, and independents, because those outside the parties are more numerous than those inside the parties, a dialogue that establishes a new national strategy that rebuilds The entire political system, and accordingly, the one-year deadline set by the president is not only directed at Israel and the international community, but also at the components of the entire political and societal system. This deadline will lead to a further deterioration of the situation and the consolidation of the division, and we may be attacked by new divisions that are no less dangerous than the current one.

After three-quarters of the presidential deadline/ultimatum has passed, and under an Israeli government headed by Naftali Bennett and an Israeli society that is no less Zionist and extremist than it, there is no chance for Israel to change its policy and adhere to the resolutions of international legitimacy or the two-state solution. The Israeli government has intensified its settlement projects and the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and other areas. The provocation reached the government's adoption of the media march in Jerusalem and its implementation under the protection of the army. It also does not appear on the horizon that Hamas and other factions will pick up the president's initiative and reconsider their policy and take a step towards ending division and the achievement of national reconciliation. Indeed, all its policies and measures in the Gaza Strip confirm that it will not back down from its control over the Strip.

So what will the president do after next September and the expiry of the specified deadline, even though what happened of Zionist practices after the president's speech in September required a response without waiting for the specified deadline?

It may be understandable that Israel is indifferent to the president's speeches and threats, and it has become accustomed to such threats from all Palestinian factions. It is also possible to understand the negativity of Hamas' position, and the Palestinian factions did not take the president's threats seriously, and it seems that the majority of the Palestinian people and all countries of the world do not take the president's threats seriously. Seriously, the reason is simply that all of these parties did not see a movement on the ground by the official institution, which suggests that a change is being prepared for.

Yes, there are no indications that the Palestinian leadership is preparing for a new approach by implementing the decisions of the Central Council or returning to the people through general elections so that the people can say their word. Neither the National Council nor the Central Council nor the Executive Committee of the PLO met to discuss the matter until the eighth general conference of the Fatah movement. Postponing it, and as the popular proverb says (if it needs distraction, it will be clouded), and that some say there is still plenty of time until September, this is an underestimation of minds because the implementation of the president’s threats or what he declared requires a comprehensive national strategy to confront the Israeli reactions to the president’s implementation of his threat. Even without the President's reprieve and his threat, and as previously mentioned, what is happening requires such a move and such a strategy as soon as possible.

And we say it frankly, and after we tracked what happened in the march of the Jewish flags and the settlers’ storming of the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque without valuable reactions from the political class and from the official and partisan institutions, after what happened, we do not believe that what happened after last September will be different from what came before it, rather things will be worse. Even if the president issued a decision to implement the Central Council's decisions, the official institutions would not be able or willing to implement it.