Foreign Policy article: Security coordination with Israel is a complete loss for Abbas and his authority

The American magazine "Foreign Policy"

stating that the security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority represents a complete loss for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his authority, and yet it will not stop until the collapse of this authority.

The author of the article, Khaled al-Jundi, a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute in Washington, explains that this security coordination, which Abbas previously described as a "sacred" responsibility, has been a fundamental pillar of the Oslo process since 1993, and is also vital to the existence and survival of the Palestinian Authority.

The writer added that this coordination is not welcomed by ordinary Palestinians of all political spectrums, who see it as a form of cooperation with the occupation, and others see it as an outright "betrayal". It was a sticking point in the ongoing reconciliation processes between the authority and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). In addition, preserving it at a time when Palestinians are being killed in large numbers would be political suicide, and ending it would mean the end of the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas has no other choice

He pointed out that the decision to suspend coordination, which was taken by Abbas after the recent events in Jenin and Jerusalem, was not taken by the President of the Palestinian Authority lightly or impulsively. Rather, he had no choice but him while he was in power, given the high number of Palestinian deaths.

Al-Jundi said that the dilemma that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority live in is that the permanent severing of security relations with Israel may lead to the imposition of sanctions and other punitive measures by Israel, and most likely by the United States as well, and this endangers the existence of the Authority.

On the other hand, continuing to coordinate with the Israeli army while the occupation becomes increasingly repressive and violent undermines what little internal legitimacy Abbas has left.

The writer cites confirmation of Abbas' inability to end the security coordination that despite repeated threats to him over the years to sever relations with Israel, he did so only once before, amid fears of imminent Israeli annexation of the West Bank after the Trump administration's peace plan was issued in 2020, but soon These relations did not resume after the election of Joe Biden as President of America.

It is one of the failures of Oslo

He went on to say that this dilemma highlights one of the central failures of the Oslo peace process over the past three decades. While the primary role of security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel is to prevent attacks on Israelis, whether they are soldiers or civilians, there are no provisions or mechanisms to protect lives. Palestinians and their property, as a population living under military occupation since June 1967, from Israeli incursions, shootings, arrests, land confiscations and evictions - all of which continue almost unabated - or from the daily specter of terrorist attacks by Israeli settlers.

In order to demonstrate the deep dilemma of Abbas and his authority with security coordination, Al-Jundi referred to Abbas' recent announcement to suspend this coordination and retract it at the same time, explaining that Abbas assured American officials in particular, after the announcement, that the exchange of intelligence information with Israel goes hand in hand with the efforts of the Palestinian Authority. To thwart attacks on Israelis will continue, even with the suspension, as before, and that full coordination will resume once calm is restored.

Huge losses for Abbas and the authority

To clarify the losses that Abbas and the PA are exposed to, Al-Jundi indicated, in addition to the Palestinians’ dissatisfaction with them, that the international community is withdrawing its investments from the PA and reducing its grants and aid, and this reduction has reached about 85% since 2008, in addition to the loss since 2019 of about two billion dollars. From tax transfers collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.

This, he said, put the Palestinian Authority on the brink of financial bankruptcy.

And although restoring limited US aid under the Biden administration has helped mitigate some of the damage, it is unlikely to stop the bleeding.

Al-Jundi also referred to the dwindling political and economic prospects of the Palestinian Authority, its diminishing physical presence on the ground, with its inability to protect Palestinian lives and property or otherwise challenge the Israeli occupation, which prompted new armed groups to fill the vacuum, especially in the Nablus and Jenin areas. , In addition to the other existential threat from the new far-right Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, which is considered the most extreme in the history of Israel, as evidenced by its public commitment to the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority as part of its ambitions to annex the Palestinian territories.

America is not interested

Regarding American support for the Authority and the Palestinians, the writer said that Washington is not currently interested in the Palestinians or the Israeli-Palestinian file, as evidenced by the extensive visits of senior American officials to the region currently, which did not seriously address any issue other than confrontation with Iran and the promotion of Arab-Israeli normalization, and a new American call for the Palestinian Authority to restore Confirming its control over Jenin and Nablus, while not asking Israel for parallel demands to curb its attack.

Meanwhile, the soldier maintains, Israel shows no sign of backing down, as evidenced by the army's deadly raid on a Palestinian refugee camp near Jericho that left 5 Palestinians dead, even after the events in Jenin and Jerusalem.

His article concludes that the chronic weakness of the Palestinian Authority and its dependence on both America and Israel makes it almost impossible for Abbas or his future successor to sever security relations with Israel permanently, adding that security coordination will not be exposed to a real threat except from the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and that may not be the day. Elusive.