It should come as no surprise that PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced he’d only agree to a broad, internationally backed panel to mediate any peace talks with Israel.
The Palestinians are frantically perseverating over President Trump’s recognition last month of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Abbas told a gathering of senior Palestinian officials in a recent speech that the American announcement had eliminated it as a peacemaker.
In its history since 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which became the Palestinian Authority (PA), has spent its years spearheading terrorism and all but avoiding peace.
The PA has received countless billions of American foreign aid over the years. And when peace discussions toward a two-state solution are even attempted, the Palestinian diplomats have historically found a way to stall or reject.
So when President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it came as no surprise that PA President Mahmoud Abbas called for “days of rage.” He was the little spoiled child kicking and screaming his way into a temper tantrum. He would go on to declare that the Oslo Accords were “dead.”
The Trump announcement would have been the perfect time for Abbas to show some semblance of leadership, not to mention maturity. A forward-thinking response is what we’ve been waiting to see from the Palestinians for years. We hope and we hope, but they succeed at never coming through.
We’re not expecting Abbas to have a great awakening of reason, but someone should tell him the following: “No U.S., no peace.”
Certainly after Abbas’ irresponsible behavior and criticism of the president, the Trump administration ordered the freezing of more than half of its funding for the U.N. agency administering aid to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. We’re certain that the administration is tired of allocating almost a third of UNRWA’s budget. But we also feel the message was clear to Abbas and the PA.
“No U.S., no peace.”
And perhaps more importantly for the PA:
“No money.”