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The Cost of Palestinian Unilateralism

(Foreign Policy) Michael Singh - With the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations stalled for more than two years, the tide of support for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September is growing. Palestinian unilateralism has been buoyed not only by strong support from Arab nations, but also from Britain and France. Yet PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad reported that of the $971 million in pledges made by donors, so far this year only $330 million had actually been paid. That the same friends who are promising their UN votes to the PA are failing to follow through on their aid pledges should give Palestinians pause. The last IMF report on the Palestinian economy noted that continued economic recovery depended on further reductions by Israel in restrictions on movement and access within the West Bank and Gaza and better coordination between the PA and Israel on the collection of "clearance revenue" (essentially taxes and fees collected by Israeli authorities and transferred to the PA). These boil down to Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, which is threatened by the specter of Palestinian unilateralism in September. As the report on unfulfilled donor pledges makes clear, the Palestinians cannot count on the friends cheering them on rhetorically to step up financially if the going gets rough post-September. For Israelis and Palestinians, there is no unilateral path to peace and prosperity; these will be achieved only through the hard work of negotiations. This is the sobering lesson Palestinians should take from the latest economic data, and the unified message the U.S. and its allies should deliver to Ramallah. The writer, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, is managing director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2011-07-08 00:00:00
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