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Time to Call Abbas' Bluff
(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - By blowing up the latest U.S. attempt to negotiate peace with an end run to the UN and its affiliated agencies, the Palestinians have come to believe they can conduct a diplomatic war on Israel with impunity. The PA thinks it has a blank check to avoid peace and the freedom to carry on the conflict in any manner it chooses. So long as the PA thinks it can keep receiving the subsidies it gets from the U.S. and the rest of the West without keeping their commitments, there will never be any motivation for them to make peace. That is why Israel is withholding the tax revenues it normally passes along to the PA as well as advising Congress to put a halt to its generous aid. Abbas' aide Saeb Erekat has threatened that the PA may just dissolve itself and end security cooperation with Israel. Washington should call the PA's bluff immediately. The notion that Abbas and his Fatah kleptocracy would simply go home and abandon the huge patronage scheme they have created on the West Bank is absurd. Abbas operates his Ramallah government for the sake of his party and cronies, not for Israel. Fatah's ability to skim money from international aid is its raison d'etre. Moreover, the security cooperation with Israel is as much if not more in Abbas' interests as it is for the Jewish state. He relies on Israel to protect him against threats to his life and his government from Hamas and other terror groups backed by Iran.