In an exhausting two-hour speech before the PLO Central Council on January 14, 2018, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) provided the morning papers with many headlines. Abbas laid into Trump saying Yehreb Beitak, a common insult which translates as “may your house be demolished.”  Many Israeli commentators see this as a clear sign that the Palestinian leader has “lost his marbles,” or in other words, “broken the rules”. Abbas said “no” to the “deal of the century” that Trump has been talking about since he met Netanyahu at the White House a year ago, but Abbas did not explain why he refused. He only stressed that Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is for him a casus belli, and he will not accept any American role in the Mideast peace process.

Trump’s “deal of the century” was passed on to Mahmoud Abbas by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS), as reported by the New York Times on December 4, 2017. According to the newspaper, MBS urged Abbas to accept the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis as the capital of the future Palestinian state, and to agree to a territorial compromise according to which most settlements will remain intact. The Palestinians would receive a mini-state with limited sovereignty and no territorial contiguity. The meeting between MBS and Abbas took place two weeks after a special visit by President Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner handed over to the Saudis a plan prepared by three Orthodox Jewish envoys: Kushner, Ambassador David Friedman, and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s chief Israeli-Palestinian negotiator. The three adopted the worldview of gambling magnate and Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, one of Trump’s main sponsors and owner of the freebie newspaper Israel Today. He is noted for his absolute support of Netanyahu.

Two weeks after Mahmoud Abbas’s fateful visit to Saudi Arabia on December 6, 2017, Trump declared his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The US State Department tried to mollify the impression, perhaps to curb angry reactions in the occupied territories and in the Arab world, by pointing out that the Trump declaration did not define the borders of the city, which are still subject to negotiation between the sides. Throughout that period, Mahmoud Abbas was subjected to heavy pressure to get him to say “yes” to the American proposal that had Saudi Arabia’s blessing, but to no avail. When Trump returned from his vacation this year, he turned to Twitter, and in a series of 14 tweets on various topics, he wrote in a clear, although disjointed manner: “We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate… We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

Mahmoud Abbas’s reaction in the speech to the Central Council, “May your house be demolished,” expressed frustration. But it is only declarative, and the impression is that Abbas convened the Council so that he could vent his frustration and, in effect, thwart any practical decision. His frustration stems not only from Trump’s actions. His main problem is the Arab world – the Saudis, Egyptians, and Jordanians – who are fed up with the Palestinian question and want to remove it from the table in order to deal with the real strategic threat—which is Iran, not the Israeli occupation.

Mahmoud Abbas has additional troubles. He is facing an Arab front that is pressuring him to surrender, and he is also isolated at home. Despite his entreaties, Hamas declined to participate in the Central Council meeting, which overshadowed all efforts to close ranks and show solidarity on the Jerusalem issue. Moreover, attempts to reach a position paper acceptable to all factions of the PLO, especially those that do not include Hamas, have failed. Abbas is not interested in reaching any decision that would formally annul the Oslo Accords. The significance of such a move would be the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is a creation of the Oslo Accords. Abbas also wants to continue the security coordination with Israel, which is sacred to him. While he declares that Israel ceases to be committed to the Oslo Accords, he remains committed to them.

What is Abbas willing to do? He is prepared to continue the popular nonviolent resistance and send young Palestinians to demonstrate and be killed (in small numbers) in clashes with IDF soldiers. Of course, he is willing to continue negotiations with Hamas until the latter disarms and recognizes the PA’s authority in Gaza. He is determined to fight terrorism and continue a dialogue with the Israeli peace camp. On the political level, the plan is to work with hundreds of different international institutions in order to gain recognition of Palestine as a state. For Mahmoud Abbas, the PA is already a governing body of a state – without its own currency, without borders, without sovereignty – in fact a virtual state that exists by inertia.

But in response to Trump’s threats to stop aid to the Palestinians, a “senior Palestinian official” told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat in a moment of impressive honesty: “The dismantling of the Palestinian Authority is not in an Israeli or American interest. In the event that the PA collapses, it will be Israel that will have to provide the services as an occupying power. Now the Palestinian Authority is receiving aid from Arab countries and the rest of the world in order to finance these services and if it collapses, Israel will face these problems alone. The dismantling of the PA will strengthen the aspiration for a one-state solution, and that is something no Israeli government wants.”

The current arrangement, the existence of a PA that provides services and security, that settles for a virtual state, and that is ready to keep the solution on the back burner indefinitely, plays into the hands of the Israeli Right. The Right can continue humming the tune, No partner. It is also great for the Israeli Left, which can continue humming the opposite tune, There is a partner. The consensus is that a one-state solution would be bad for all sides: Fatah in Ramallah, Hamas in Gaza, the Right in Jerusalem and the Left in Tel Aviv.

In his fiery speech, Mahmoud Abbas expressed anger at the Jews and Israel. According to him, “Colonialism created Israel to perform a certain function. It is a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism, but rather used the Jews as a tool under the slogan of the Promised Land.” On these things the Israeli Right will celebrate, saying: “We told you! The man is an anti-Semite.” And the Left, for its part, will weep over the fact that the Partner once again rips off the mask of being both “Jewish and democratic.” In the meantime, this ugly Occupation, which erodes every enlightened part of the Jews-only democracy, and preserves a military dictatorship in the occupied territories, will continue unabated.

An interesting point to be noted is that in his speech of anger toward Trump, Mahmoud Abbas found it necessary to confess that the Arab Spring is no more than a Winter that has brought disorder to the Middle East. Thus, Abbas joins many in the Arab world and certainly, in Israel as well. The reason is simple: the Arab Spring expressed young people’s desire for democracy and social justice. In light of the despair that prevails on the Palestinian street, the overwhelming majority of young Palestinians between the ages of 18 and 25 do not believe in a Palestinian state, and aspire to one state. This is the generation of the future. Like their brothers in the Arab world, young Palestinians understand very well the nature of the Palestinian Authority, which is like other Arab regimes they aim to overthrow. Netanyahu supports demonstrations in Iran, Mahmoud Abbas does not. Like all the Arab dictators, Abbas knows that what happens in Tehran may repeat itself in the West Bank.

* Translated from the Hebrew by Robert Goldman

The post Mahmoud Abbas is angry. So what! first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

A day of discussion organized by Daam Workers Party

Date: Saturday, 21 October, 10:00 – 17:00

Location: Sindyanna of the Galilee Visitors Center, Kfar Kana (Cana) Industrial Area (north of Nazareth)

The agenda – below

Click here for the Facebook event

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Years have passed since the signing of the Oslo Accords, and a political solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict seems to be getting further and further away. Fifty years of the Occupation of Palestinian territories have created a reality of a single warped state which denies even the most basic rights to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The two-state solution has finally fallen from the agenda, because the Likud government has come out against a Palestinian state. For its part, the Labour Party – the biggest force of the opposition to the Netanyahu Government, has also abandoned the two-state solution, opting to concentrate on social issues instead. The continuation of a distorted coexistence between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Occupier is leading to interminable bloodshed and the deepening of the conflict.

The illusion that it is possible to manage the conflict while simultaneously maintaining a democratic and enlightened Israeli society has blown up in the face of those who wanted to believe it. The conflict permeates Israeli society in all its aspects. The list of these is almost endless: The formation of the tight wing terrorist “Hilltop Youth” , Hebron shooter Elor Azaria’s case, the nationality law and the racist incitement against both Arab citizens and asylum seekers. Then there’s intercommunal (Mizrahi/Ashkenazi) hatred, the open warfare on the High Court of Justice, the religionization of the educational system and the incitement against creative artists. All of these are making life in Israel unbearable for those aspiring to live in an open, democratic and liberal society.

The fact that the government and the opposition in Israel are not working to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn’t going to make millions of Palestinians vanish; the lack of a political solution to the conflict is a time bomb.  The attempt to maintain the current situation in perpetuity is based on a misreading of the global context. Both the Arab and Western worlds are undergoing deep political and economic upheavals.  Trump’s election in the United States and the Brexit victory in the UK are notable examples of the swift and sharp changes that are taking place in the West. The Arab world is in transition from feudal dictatorial and monarchial regimes to modern democracies. It is a complex and difficult transition which passes through revolutionary uprisings of the peoples, brutal repression and bloody civil wars.

What then is the answer to all this?

The solution of one state for the two peoples who live between the River Jordan and the sea becomes relevant precisely because of the nature of the current epoch. First and foremost, it would end the isolation behind walls, promoting a shared life between Arabs and Jews.

The One State Solution for the two peoples is the answer to the failure of efforts to achieve a two-state agreement and the failure of the Arab national project in Syria and Iraq. It is a response to the failure of the neoliberal economic system, and it reflects the technological revolution which brings young people from all over the world to a single culture. The one-state solution is compatible with the revolutionary ideas that emerged in the global protest movement, ideas that were at the basis of the popular revolutions of the Arab Spring which overthrew dictatorships. The old world is disappearing before our eyes, while nationalist and fascist forces are trying to stop the march of history with all their might. These forces include the right wing supporting Trump in America, Putin in Russia, Le Pen in France, Brexit in Britain, and the racist, nationalist government in Israel. Everyone is investing all their power in building walls to stop the forces of change.

But the globalization of knowledge and the new economy know no boundaries; they open a new opportunity to build another world. This is what millions of young people in the United States and the UK, Egypt and Syria want in their struggle to create a new future, a future based on a cooperative economy and globalization for the benefit of the people. That future has no room for Walls, Occupation and the racism of the Israeli Right.

The idea of ​​a one-state solution is revolutionary. It is a utopia that will become a reality in light of the changes that are taking place in the world. In order that it may become reality, we must unite all the democratic forces on both sides of the fence, the opponents of Jewish religious messianism and those who oppose Islamic messianism. This is a protracted process which will inevitably involve thinkers, activists, organizations and movements from Palestine and Israel. The process will begin with exchanges of views, move on to joint activities and go out into the street, eventually culminating in the writing of a clear political program.

The seminar organized by the Daam party in October is an attempt to understand together the possibilities that the future holds, instead of sinking into despair or indifference, playing into the hands of those who wish to perpetuate the present situation. Understanding and knowledge are primary tools for changing reality. Your participation will be in itself a small but important step forward.

Agenda

10:00 – Registration

10:30 – 11:30 Lecture by Yacov Ben Efrat: “The Vision for the Future and the One-State Solution”

11:30 – 13:00 Discussion

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 16:30 Panel on: the One-State Solution – “From Utopia to Emerging Reality” with Dr. Raif Zreik, Dr. Itamar Mann, Jurist Diana Buttu, Muhammad Al-Hilu, Assaf Adiv.

About the speakers at the seminar

* Yacov Ben Efrat – Secretary General of the Daam Party

* Dr. Raif Zreik – lecturer in political philosophy

* Dr. Itamar Mann – Lecturer in International Law at the University of Haifa

* Diana Buttu, Jurist, a fellow at the Law School at the University of Windsor, Canada

* Muhammad al-Hilu – one of the initiators of “one democratic state”

* Assaf Adiv – a member of the leadership of the Da’am party

Participation NIS 80 (including lunch)

To register call:

The Visitors Center at Kfar Kana – Hanan Zoabi – 050-4009455, 04-6020680

Haifa and the North: Michal Schwartz 050-4330067

The Triangle: Wafa Tiara – 050-4330036

Tel Aviv and the Center: Roni Ben Efrat – 050-4330038

Jerusalem: Erez Wagner – 050-7596492

Translated from the Hebrew by Sol Salbe

The post One State for Palestinians and Israelis, From Utopia to an Emerging Reality first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.