Ben White, The Electronic Intifada, 24 November 2009
"......Now, the prospect of the PA's collapse has been raised in relation to an apparent peace process fatigue amongst the Palestinian leadership. Like the proposed unilateral declaration of statehood, this is seen by many as a tactic by Abbas and his group, designed to push the US administration into applying pressure on Israel. Despite the denials by the likes of Erekat that anyone has really called for dissolving the PA, there has been enough for some commentators like the Adelson Institute's Dror Bar-Yosef to look ahead and imagine the potential consequences, namely "a new intifada and call for a one-state solution".....
While the focus is on Palestinian strategies regarding the peace process, there are other important "unilateral" developments taking place; The Washington Post reported on 21 November that the PLO seeks to keep Abbas in power with the possibility of the transference of the authority of the Palestinian Legislative Council to the PLO's own Central Council. This is the current kind of "unilateralism" favored by too many Palestinian leaders: a move that is a transparently partisan, undemocratic tactic resulting from the desire to keep the same elite in control and sideline Hamas, carried out under the pretext of avoiding a so-called "constitutional crisis."......
But the Palestinian "unilateralism" making recent news is more like a game of politicking -- and a dangerous one at that. Abbas could be keen to push the proposal for unilateral statehood/Security Council recognition as a way of undermining Fayyad's own "two year plan," amid worries that the US has already designated Fayyad to replace Abbas, just as Abbas himself was "empowered" by the US to sideline and eventually embrace the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Certainly, Abbas is more preoccupied with addressing the US than his own people. This is indeed a time of transition; but the proposed unilateralism of the PA and PLO leadership is more like the desperate throw of a dice from a regime on its way out, rather than the first steps of a bold, new path."
"......Now, the prospect of the PA's collapse has been raised in relation to an apparent peace process fatigue amongst the Palestinian leadership. Like the proposed unilateral declaration of statehood, this is seen by many as a tactic by Abbas and his group, designed to push the US administration into applying pressure on Israel. Despite the denials by the likes of Erekat that anyone has really called for dissolving the PA, there has been enough for some commentators like the Adelson Institute's Dror Bar-Yosef to look ahead and imagine the potential consequences, namely "a new intifada and call for a one-state solution".....
While the focus is on Palestinian strategies regarding the peace process, there are other important "unilateral" developments taking place; The Washington Post reported on 21 November that the PLO seeks to keep Abbas in power with the possibility of the transference of the authority of the Palestinian Legislative Council to the PLO's own Central Council. This is the current kind of "unilateralism" favored by too many Palestinian leaders: a move that is a transparently partisan, undemocratic tactic resulting from the desire to keep the same elite in control and sideline Hamas, carried out under the pretext of avoiding a so-called "constitutional crisis."......
But the Palestinian "unilateralism" making recent news is more like a game of politicking -- and a dangerous one at that. Abbas could be keen to push the proposal for unilateral statehood/Security Council recognition as a way of undermining Fayyad's own "two year plan," amid worries that the US has already designated Fayyad to replace Abbas, just as Abbas himself was "empowered" by the US to sideline and eventually embrace the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Certainly, Abbas is more preoccupied with addressing the US than his own people. This is indeed a time of transition; but the proposed unilateralism of the PA and PLO leadership is more like the desperate throw of a dice from a regime on its way out, rather than the first steps of a bold, new path."
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