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Abbas' Palestinian Authority Hurts Everybody

(Tablet) Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser and Sander Gerber - The Palestinian Authority, established in 1994 in the Oslo Accords, was supposed to enable the Palestinians living in the territories to enjoy self-rule in a democratically functioning regime that respected their human and civil rights. Additionally, the PA was supposed to lead the Palestinians toward a permanent peace with Israel through diplomatic negotiations. Israel expected the PA to stop incitement to hatred and violence against it within Palestinian society. The international community, led by the U.S., expected the PA to improve the economic situation of the Palestinians and they provided very generous financial and economic assistance. The Oslo Peace Process never envisioned Israel or some other outside power fulfilling the aspirations and expectations of the Palestinian people for freedom, a decent political system, and economic prosperity. Those needed to be fulfilled from inside Palestinian society. The total failure to fulfill those expectations, therefore, begins with the PA itself, which has proved to be deeply corrupt, incompetent, and undemocratic in the eyes of the people it purports to represent. The PA has not held elections in 14 years; its elected parliament does not function. Instead, it governs by executive orders issued by a president who was elected in 2005. The PA denies its Palestinian citizens basic human rights and freedoms, such as freedom of speech. It tortures prisoners. The PA uses international aid to eternalize the conflict by paying handsome salaries to terrorists and their families (about 7% of the PA's annual budget). It has misused the enormous foreign aid it received and has failed to translate this aid into building a successful economy. The new U.S. peace plan, unlike any previous plan, tells the Palestinian Authority that if it does not choose to change in the coming four years, the U.S., Israel, and the pragmatic Arabs are not going to wait any longer and will not enable the PA to have veto power over their will to move forward. Let us hope that this new peace paradigm, which is based on the realities on the ground, will help heal the wounds that the PA has inflicted on Palestinians, Israelis, moderate Arabs, and international donor countries, whose money has been spent on murder and hate - and help us build a road to peace. Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser and Sander Gerber are fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2020-02-11 00:00:00
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