Netanyahu Discredits the Palestinian Authority at His Own Peril

In 2008, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke admiringly of Mahmoud Abbas at the annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington: “President Abbas and his government recognize Israel’s right to live in security and are as committed as we are to achieving peace,” he said. “They know full well that the path of terrorism only condemns the Palestinian people to misery and hopelessness and have a genuine desire to see a Palestinian State living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security.”

Last week, at the same podium, Benjamin Netanyahu offered a different perspective.

"What has the Palestinian Authority done for peace? Well, they have placed preconditions on peace talks, waged a relentless international campaign to undermine Israel's legitimacy, and promoted the notorious Goldstone Report that falsely accuses Israel of war crimes...," said Netanyahu. "The Palestinian Authority has also continued incitement against Israel… Peace requires reciprocity. It cannot be a one-way street in which only Israel makes concessions."

These lines no doubt elicited chuckles from serious observers of the conflict, particularly those familiar with the Palestinian Authority’s extensive (some Palestinians would allege, treasonous) security relationship with the Israeli occupation forces. But despite the appearance of grasping at straws, Netanyahu’s ongoing campaign to discredit the Palestinian Authority is no laughing matter.

The problem is not only that Netanyahu’s characterization strains credulity. The greater danger — no less for Israel and its supporters — is that his deliberate deceptions threaten to destabilize a multi-billion-dollar Palestinian state-building operation that, for better or worse, represents the last credible bulwark, locally and internationally, against the rising tide of “one-state” activism prognosticated by such doomsayers as current Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Since 2007 an international military delegation lead by U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has been training, equipping, and reorganizing the once-fractious and decrepit Palestinian security forces. In a speech last year, Dayton summarized his achievements.

"What we have created are new men… Over the last year-and-a-half, the Palestinians have engaged upon a series of what they call security offensives throughout the West Bank, surprisingly well coordinated with the Israeli army, in a serious and sustained effort to return the rule of law to the West Bank and reestablish the authority of the Palestinian Authority," Dayton said. "Beginning in Nablus, then Jenin, Hebron, and Bethlehem, they have caught the attention of the Israeli defense establishment for their dedication, discipline, motivation, and results."

Jerusalem Post correspondent Yaakov Katz observed a few weeks ago that “Currently, [Israeli] cooperation with the PA security forces has never been better, and defense officials readily admit that the PA is spearheading the war on Hamas in the West Bank with the IDF riding shotgun.” According to the Israeli Security Agency, attacks emanating from the West Bank have all but ceased: “the continuous counter-terror activity conducted by Israel and the Palestinian security apparatuses is the main reason for the decline in the amount of attacks.” During the first three months of 2010, PA security forces dispersed Palestinian protests against Israel’s “nationalization” of holy sites in the West Bank city of Hebron; thwarted an attempted suicide bombing against Israel; and handed over Qassam missiles seized from militants to the Israeli occupation forces.

As for the problem of “incitement” (which, incidentally, runs rampant in Israel), a recent exposé in the Jerusalem Post underscored the extent of the Palestinian Authority’s draconian crackdown on free political speech under its domain:

The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank has over the past two years fired hundreds of school teachers and imams suspected of being affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian sources in Ramallah disclosed on Sunday…[A] source said the PA wanted to make sure that the schools and mosques in the West Bank were not being used as podiums for political activities on behalf of Hamas or other radical Islamist groups… In addition, the ministry has banned imams and other religious figures from using the mosques to deliver “private lectures” about Islam and Shari’a.

While understandably troubling for proponents of human rights in the occupied territories, these developments leave no doubt that the Palestinian Authority has complied with its international obligations as enumerated in the 2002 “Roadmap for Peace.” The problem, as Joe Klein recently pointed out, is that Israel hasn’t: “The most important condition for Israel [under the Roadmap] -- a condition agreed upon by the entire international community, including the Bush Administration... -- is the cessation of settlement building on Palestinian lands. That condition hasn't been met.”

Were it just a matter of hypocrisy, it would be bad enough. But as Palestinians continue to repress internal dissent, Netanyahu’s unwillingness to satisfy his end of the bargain -- by halting Israel’s colonization of the West Bank and gradually transferring security responsibility to the Palestinian Authority -- is beginning to strain the PA’s already dwindling credibility.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “A shortage of weapons, money and authority, and continuing Israeli military incursions into areas that are supposed to be under Palestinian control, are threatening to turn public pride and confidence into distrust and derision.” Dayton himself reportedly asked the IDF to transfer control of Hebron to the Palestinian Authority as a token of good faith -- and was denied: “The reasoning was that as long as Israel is in the territories, it needs to be fully in control.” If this policy of total Israeli domination continues, PA security personnel will begin to appear more and more the unwitting agents of a never-ending colonial occupation, policing a subjugated population against its will for the benefit of Israel’s metastasizing right-wing settler community.

And by continuing to disavow the Palestinian Authority as a “partner for peace,” Netanyahu is further hastening its transformation from a viable proto-state into a reviled instrument of collaboration. In the process, he may be hastening Israel’s own demise. It’s not clear what Netanyahu thinks will replace the Palestinian Authority in the event of its dissolution. But Ehud Olmert -- once again -- probably had it right. In the event that a two-state solution collapses, he said, Israel will “face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.”

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