Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Jordan may re-submit to the U.N. Security Council a resolution calling for creating the Palestinian Authority as a country, but the same day his so-called chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian Authority may dissolve.
Remember the joke in the Six-Day War?
Questions: How many gears does an Arab tank have?
Answer: Seven – one forward and six for reverse.
Abbas’ behavior is nothing less than insane.
After leading a brilliant 9-year diplomatic battle to win international support for his terms for creating a Palestinian Authority country within Israel’s borders, he is ramming his bulldozer into the same wall he has mined with explosives. The wall was supposed to fall on Israel, but it is going to collapse on him.
The Security Council, as of January 1, has more pro-Arab countries who have taken their rotating places, supplanting others who now are off the Council.
So why was Abbas in such a hurry last week to submit the resolution, only to see it fall by one vote? Jordan presented the resolution to call on Israel to agree to Abbas’ terms for a PA country within one-year and carry out the conditions within three years and expel 600,000 Jews from Judea and Samaria and half of Jerusalem.
And does Jordan realty want a dangerous Palestinian Authority state on its borders. Or perhaps Jordan gladly presented the resolution, knowing it would fail or be vetoed?
It is insane even to think about such a nightmare that would leave Israel exposed to Palestinian Authority terrorists and would leave Palestinian Authority civilians at the suffering of another corrupt and autocratic regime.
If the solution goes back to the United Nations and wins the required two-thirds majority, it now is almost a given that President Barack Obama will order a veto, not because he loves Israel but because the United States needs Israel for intelligence and military cooperation.
Regardless of needs, Obama has no reason not to order a veto as a return slap in the face to Abbas for knifing the president and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the back by dismissing Washington as a power-broker in the Middle East.
So why is Abbas even thinking about re-submitting a resolution? If he is trying to expose or portray Obama as pro-Israel, he will pay a heavy price.
The United States is not the power it once was, but it still is not to be treated like the neighborhood weakling. Americans quickly get their back up when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu scolds President Obama and even more so when the Palestinian Authority tells him to get lost.
Congress, which is far more pro-Zionist than Obama, would very likely make Abbas pay a fine of $500 million by suspending annual aid to Ramallah.
That comes on top of $128 million in December tax revenues for the Palestinian Authority that Israel is spending in retaliation for the Abbas’ asking to join the International Criminal Court, where he can sue Israel for war crimes – and where he can be sued just as well.
If that is not enough of another reverse in the Arab diplomatic tank, Erekat has pulled another gear backwards.
He told Yediot Acharonot that Palestinian Authority leaders soon will meet to discuss to tell Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take over Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
“Netanyahu is destroying the Palestinian Authority. What authority did he leave? The Israeli people don’t see us anymore and that’s the problem,” according to Erekat.
The Palestinian Authority never has taken responsibility for anything, not even for terrorist attacks it promotes.
Like the old Arab generals at war with Israel and who used to declare they were victorious at the same time their armies were retreating, Abbas said Sunday that the Palestinian Authority did not fail at the United Nations.
Then who failed?
The United Nations, of course, to wit: ”We didn’t fail. The U.N. Security Council failed us. We’ll go again to the Security Council. Why not?”
Indeed, why not?
The United States will veto a resolution calling for a Palestinian Authority state while Erekat says the Palestinian Authority may be dissolved.
And then what? Does Israel get saddled with ruling a population that does want Jordan, Israel or the Palestinian Authority to rule it?
Not at all.
As Dr. Mordechai Kedar has written years ago, the Palestinian Authority will disintegrate into several nation-states based more on tribal affiliations – Hebron, Jenin, Jericho, Tulkarm, Kalkilya, Gaza and Ramallah.
It is a win-win solution, and Abbas can live out his days talking to Kerry about resuming the peace process.