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The Palestinian Refusal to Negotiate with Israel and Trump Is a Cowardly, Fateful Mistake
(Ha'aretz) Bishara A. Bahbah - The Palestinian leadership is in a state of mental paralysis with regard to the U.S. peace plan. Besides denunciations and rejection, the Palestinian leadership has nothing else to offer. This is counter to the interests of the Palestinian people. The same, failed Palestinian leaders have been leading for the last four decades. Despite their failures, they have either retained their positions or have been promoted. Few self-respecting and productive Palestinians want to be part of that failed group of policymakers. In 2000, 2008, and 2014, the Palestinian Authority refused to accept peace proposals based on a two-state solution formula. Today, those previous peace proposals look very attractive compared to the Trump peace plan. Do not waste the Palestinian people's lives waiting for a better proposal to present itself. It might never happen. President Donald Trump, and his ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, described the Trump peace plan as "a basis for negotiations." They did not say take it or leave it. Why not come to the negotiating table with an alternative proposal? The Palestinian political elite are financially comfortable with their monthly stipends, cars, drivers, and Israeli-issued VIP passes. The rest of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank do not have those luxuries, but they see what the leaders have. President Mahmoud Abbas, your legacy can either be leaving the Palestinians in limbo, as they are now, or taking the courageous and arduous road of resuming peace negotiations. The writer, former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem-based Al-Fajr, is a founder of the Palestine Center in Washington.