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Emmanuel Macron is Clueless on the Palestinians

(Gatestone Institute) Bassam Tawil - French President Emmanuel Macron justified his decision to recognize a Palestinian state by arguing that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had promised "a thorough overhaul of Palestinian governance." Abbas, unfortunately, has been promising sweeping government and security reforms ever since he assumed power in 2005. Palestinians have yet to see even the slightest change. Abbas has had two entire decades to reform the PA. A poll published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in May showed that 81% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign. Macron is apparently unaware that the Palestinian Authority has had no functioning parliament for the past 18 years. Abbas has avoided holding presidential and parliamentary elections out of justified fear that Hamas would win. In the absence of a parliament, Abbas has been running the PA through "presidential decrees." Macron is overly optimistic, if not pathetically naive, regarding the prospects of democracy in a future Palestinian state. Since its establishment 30 years ago, the PA has been cracking down on political opponents or anyone who dares to speak out against Palestinian leaders. Countless journalists and human rights and political activists have been intimidated, arrested, beaten, or killed by PA security forces. Even if a Palestinian state is created, it will be ruled either by Abbas's corrupt Fatah faction or Hamas.
2025-09-30 00:00:00
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