Palestinian Authority President Abbas Losing Support
Just three weeks before leaving office, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the outgoing US administration’s policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including last week’s decision not to a veto a UN Security Council Resolution that condemned Israel’s construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
“It is vital that we have an honest and clear-eyed conversation about the uncomfortable truths and difficult choices between the alternative, which is fast becoming reality on the ground, is in nobody’s interest – not the Israelis, not the Palestinians, not the region and not the United States,” Kerry said.
He said that no US President has done more to ensure Israel’s security than Barack Obama. He warned that hopes for a two-state solution, meaning an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, are fading.
“Despite our best efforts, the two-state solution is now in serious danger,” he said. “Trends on the ground – violence, terrorism, incitement, settlement incitement and seemingly endless occupation, are combining to destroy hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing an irreversible one state reality that most people do not actually want.|
Kerry also warned of the dangers of a one-state solution, meaning one state that would include both Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“If the choice is one state Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both and it won’t ever really be at peace,” he said.
Kerry’s speech was the latest dig at Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who had a tense relationship with outgoing President Barack Obama. In advance of the speech, US President-elect Donald Trump called on Israel to “stay strong” and said the US can’t keep treating Israel with “total disdain.”
Palestinians have welcomed the UN Resolution which calls on Israel to immediately stop all construction outside the pre-1967 lines, meaning in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israeli officials distinguish between the West Bank, which is an “administered territory” and east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967, and says will be its eternal capital.
“This had a big echo in Palestinian society, considering it’s the first time the Palestinians witnessed the Americans not using their veto power (in the Security Council),” Mohammed Hamayel, a Palestinian journalist in the West Bank told The Media Line. “It has caused some excitement in the Palestinian street and many are discussing whether we should take Israel to the ICC (the International Criminal Court at the Hague) or apply more pressure in the UN.”
He said that Palestinians see the settlement issue as a weak point where they can force Israel to lose international credibility. At the same time, Palestinians see the victory as more theoretical than practical. Israeli officials have promised to build thousands of new homes in response to the resolution, including hundreds set to be approved soon in east Jerusalem. And, analysts say, the US has long opposed settlement building, calling it an obstacle to peace.
“I don’t see much change from previous years,” Khalil Shikaki, the Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research told The Media Line. “The resolution is an affirmation of American positions that settlements are illegal, that anything beyond the lines of 1967 must be negotiated. What is new is that the US has allowed a resolution that condemns the settlements in strong words to pass. This is a change.”
The resolution came amid growing Palestinian frustration with the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Shikaki said his most recent poll, taken before the Security Council Resolution, found that two-thirds of the Palestinian public believe that Abbas should resign, and only one-third was happy with the Palestinian leadership.
Shikaki said that Abbas would most likely get a bump from the UN Security Council resolution, but that Palestinians are dissatisfied with recent autocratic moves by Abbas, including lifting the immunity of Palestinian parliament members, and forcing the Chief Justice of the highest Palestinian court to resign.
Shikaki said Palestinians have become disenchanted with the possibility of a two-state solution, meaning an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Two-thirds of Palestinians believe that the two-state solution is no longer viable, for which they blame Israel.
Another finding is that 53 percent of Palestinians support the use of violent attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. That increase in support for violence has led to dozens of Palestinian shooting and stabbing attacks in both Israel and the West Bank since September, 2016. In recent months those attacks have waned, partly because of better Israeli intelligence, and party because the Palestinian security forces have stopped attackers.
Shikaki said he believed that US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to move the US embassy to Jerusalem would be a mistake.
“Jerusalem has always been at the heart of every eruption of Israeli-Palestinian violence,” he said. “It would be a mistake to change the status quo in Jerusalem without it being part of a larger effort. The Trump administration would be doing tremendous harm if it does that.”