This was achieved by Fatah Central Committee member Nasser al-Kidwa, who threatened to downgrade the PA’s ties with the US if Trump moves the embassy to Jerusalem.
By JPOST EDITORIALPalestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signs the Paris Agreement on climate change at UN headquarters in New York(photo credit: REUTERS)
As suspense builds over whether US President Donald Trump will fulfill his campaign promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital, the Palestinian leadership is pressing panic buttons daily, appealing to the world community to agree with its absurd policy that the Jewish people’s capital for 3,000 years is in occupied Palestinian territory.The Palestinian Authority’s escalating campaign to delegitimize Israel accompanies its ongoing incitement of terrorism. But the PA last week exceeded previous attempts at bullying the world community with delusional threats of the consequences of the embassy move.This was achieved by Fatah Central Committee member Nasser al-Kidwa, who threatened to downgrade the PA’s ties with the US if Trump moves the embassy to Jerusalem.PA President Mahmoud Abbas added that the Palestinian leadership would also declare that the US is no longer a broker in the Middle East peace process and “turn to the UN” – as if the Palestinian tail has not been wagging the UN dog for years.“If that [the relocation of the embassy] takes place, the Palestinian side would have to sever its ties with the official staff of the illegal US Embassy in Jerusalem. In addition to that, there is the issue of the Palestinian political representative’s office in Washington; it would also be necessary to close [it],” Kidwa told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, adding that the Palestinians would have “no other choice.”No other choice? How about continuing to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the US? More to the point, how about admitting that the Arab refusal of the UN’s original two-state solution in 1947 has resulted in decades of war and suffering by both peoples? Abbas’s continued refusal of Israeli offers to negotiate the establishment of a Palestinian state has made it clear that he is incapable of making a sincere effort to rectify that historic mistake.Meanwhile, Abbas has sent letters to Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and many other world leaders – and held a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah – warning that moving the embassy would have “destructive” consequences for the region’s stability and the two-state solution.Abbas has evidently failed to notice that the region is already far from stable due to the caliphate campaign of Islamic State, nor has he yet to internalize the fact that his previous sponsor is no longer in the White House.Instead of dealing with reality, Kidwa said it would be necessary to close the Palestinian political representative’s office in Washington. Obviously, after cutting off relations with the US, the PLO would no longer be able to afford a luxurious suite in the American capital.Kidwa presented the novel idea that the PA may launch a complaint against the US at the UN Security Council.
Under President Trump, such a stunt would be squashed by a US veto, and would probably be as effective as Abbas threatening to hold his breath until he turned blue.Saeb Erekat, another top PA official, last week offered his own “four-point solution” to the proposed embassy move.First of all, the PLO would revoke its 1993 recognition of the State of Israel, “because under no circumstances shall we recognize Israel and the United States saying east Jerusalem is annexed,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.“No. 2, the agreements signed with Israel will be dead, because Netanyahu decided to kill it,” he said. “So he will be responsible for paying the salaries of teachers, doctors, garbage collection in the West Bank, the entirety of the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The authority cannot be sustained – it will be destroyed, because he is destroying it.”Third, the PLO would ask the UN General Assembly to suspend Israel “until it abides by international law” – namely, Resolution 2334, denying the Jewish people’s historic capital of Jerusalem. Finally, this would mean the abandonment of the two-state solution, because, as Erekat concluded, “We will be trying to accommodate ourselves in the one-state reality that was created by the dictation and settlements of Benjamin Netanyahu.”It is time for the Palestinian leadership to wake up and realize that no president of the United States could endorse the PA’s ridiculous attempt to revise history as part of its campaign to destroy the Jewish state.