The White House at this point understands that following the rejection of US involvement in peace negotiations announced by the Palestinian Authority, President Trump will not be able to present his plan for peace in the Middle East. And so a White House official told reporters Sunday evening that while Trump considers this to be merely a temporary cooling-off period with Ramallah, and the team headed by Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt is still committed to peace as always, there was no intention of pushing an agreement without the PA’s consent.
At which point, as if to reiterated the fact that the PA has not missed yet another opportunity to miss an opportunity, Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, announced on Sunday that the upcoming meeting of the PLO Central Council would consider declaring “Palestine” in the territories liberated by the IDF in 1967 from Jordan and Egypt as “a state under occupation.”
Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio, al-Ahmad said the Central Council is going to meet in Ramallah before the middle of next month to conduct a comprehensive political review of the peace process and the next steps required.
“It is not possible to continue with the relationship with Israel as long as the latter keeps denying the rights of our people, particularly in Jerusalem,” he said.
Al-Ahmed promised “further Palestinian diplomatic action will take place in the UN General Assembly, the Security Council and even the International Criminal Court as well as other international organizations.”
“We are facing a continuous, cumulative and long political, diplomatic and popular battle,” he said.
Yes, they are.
Meanwhile, a senior Jordanian official told Israel Hayom that the moderate Arab states regard the PA’s all out conduct against the US with alarm, saying, “We have a serious fear that the Palestinian activity in the matter of Jerusalem, and the attempts to push the United States out of any diplomatic process on the Palestinian issue while demanding international involvement, is a two-edged sword that will harm, first and foremost, Jordan’s official status as responsible for the holy sites of Islam in the city.”
The moderate Arab states are apparently worried that the PA’s loss of self-control over Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem could yield the opposite outcome, of many countries following Washington’s example. The Jordanian official predicted that once countries friendly to Israel would start moving their embassies to Jerusalem once they realize that the PA’s “days of rage” have failed to rally a significant number of local Arabs in the streets, and that the stability of the region has been maintained, despite the hysterical warnings about tinder boxes exploding.