Failure Is Likely Outcome of Biden’s Bid To Include the Palestinian Authority in the Abraham Accords

The Biden administration is increasingly seeking ways to include the Palestinian Authority in the Abraham Accords that were initiated by the Trump administration. This idea, though, is bound to fail because the PA has consistently shown itself as a steward of hostility, not normalization, toward Israel.By looking at Palestinian press since March, it is evident that the PA continues to oppose normalization with Israel, reject Israel’s right to exist, spurn Israel on religious grounds, and support terrorism. Trying to enfranchise the PA in the Abraham Accords is a fool’s errand.The PA continues to voice loud opposition to Arab normalization agreements with Israel. The secretary of Fatah’s central committee, Jibril Rajoub, has remarked that the recent Negev Summit and the Abraham Accords constitute an “awful Arab period.”Mr. Jibril called Prime Minister Bennett a “fascist” and “terrorist,” and labeled Israelis as “the new Nazis.” An editorial in the official daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida called the Negev parley “the summits of deceit and the Israeli delusions.” The PA’s prime minister, Muhammad Shtayyeh, called the summit “nothing but a delusion and a free gift to Israel.”The deputy chairman of the Palestinian National Council, Ali Faisal, claims that the PLO will end security cooperation and other Oslo agreements. He calls this “a binding decision.” He states that the PLO has “now entered a path of resistance in all its forms.”The PA continues to oppose Israel’s right to exist. A song featured on PA TV called the Israeli cities of Acre, Jaffa, Haifa, and Safed “occupied land.” A movie poster on the Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs displays a map of Israel as “Palestine.”The PA Mufti called towns in northern Israel “settlements,” while another editorial in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida used the same word to describe a planned town in southern Israel. In another such editorial, the PA called Jewish building in the north, south, and Jerusalem “Judaization plans” and “Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine.”While Abraham Accord signatories UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco are increasingly embracing interfaith interactions with Jews and Israel, the PA is using government-sanctioned propaganda to oppose Israel on religious grounds.A preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Salim, used his pulpit to call for ribat, i.e., religious war against Israel in order to reclaim land viewed as Islamic. The Palestinian Supreme Fatwa Council reiterated a fatwa preventing, on religious grounds, Palestinians from selling land to Jews.The Head of the Supreme Muslim Council and head preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ikrima Sabri, stated that “Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs only to Muslims, and no one else.” The PA has also labeled Jewish pilgrims to the Temple Mount “settlers” who have “invaded the al-Aqsa Mosque” and who have “held provocative tours,” while spreading “the myth of the alleged ‘Temple.’”The PA continues to accuse Israel of seeking to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque to replace it with another Jewish Temple. Palestinian incitement on the Temple Mount does not only target Jews: When Israel has invited Emiratis, Bahrainis, and Saudis to the Temple Mount, Palestinians insult and assault them.The Palestinian Authority would be an illogical partner for normalization with Israel. This is readily apparent in how various factions of the PLO responded to terror attacks in Israel. Fatah called a recent terrorist attack that killed three Israelis a “quality operation” and “powerful and influential.”The Palestinian Liberation Front labelled the attack “heroic, quality, [and] self-sacrificing,” and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called it a “heroic operation” and a “natural response to the continued colonialist occupation.…” Jenin’s district governor, Akram Rajoub, stated that the two terrorists responsible “died with might and pride.” Fatah also referred to these terrorists as “fighters,” while commending their fathers and drawing attention to the fact that their fathers were PA security officers. While the Abraham Accords continue to grow despite the Biden administration’s policies, trying to further Arab-Israeli normalization by bringing the Palestinians on board is doomed to fail.Until the PA ceases its support for terrorism toward and defamation of Israel, the PA cannot be a productive peace partner. Only when the PA completely ends its hostility to Israel can the Palestinians hope to have durable normalization with Israel.

Failure Is Likely Outcome of Biden’s Bid To Include the Palestinian Authority in the Abraham Accords

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