Rioting in the Gaza Strip and West Bank over President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization finally got on the same page. Gaza’s 54-year-old Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Ramallah’s 82-year-old leader Mahmoud Abbas urged their citizens to riot over Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Israeli authorities have done nothing different yet Hamas and PLO urge citizens to riot over the U.S. non-binding recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Voting overwhelmingly Dec. 22 to reject Trump’s decision, the U.N. General Assembly served notice that the fate of Jerusalem can only be resolved by direct talks with Israel. While there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s something very wrong with the Hamas and the PLO telling sovereign nations where to put their embassies.
Hamas and the PLO agree on only one thing: Their collective hatred of Israel. Beyond that, they can’t agree on anything since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from the PLO June 10, 2007. Driving the Gaza Strip into the ground, Hamas has waged at least two wars with Israel, watching its crumbling infrastructure devastated by Israel air strikes and missile attacks. Each war produces more devastation, generating cash donations from oil-rich Gulf States to Hamas rulers to rebuild the Gaza Strip. With only four hours of electricity a day, the last thing Hamas and the West Bank need is another war with Israel. Yet Haniyeh and Abbas encourage rioting, not only over Trump’s decision but over Israel itself. Gaza’s citizens are told daily that Hamas is on the verge of conquering the Zionist enemy. Such lies only make peace prospects with Israel next to impossible.
Hamas and the PLO don’t tell their citizens to work for peace or a two-state solution with Israel. Polling by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy shows that less than 30% of Gaza residents want a two-state solution. Some 70% want to reclaim land once called the British Mandate of Palestine, Israel’s current sovereign territory. “Death to America, death to Israel, and death to Trump,” chanted Hamas and West Bank militants, celebrating al-Quds Brigades’ rocket attacks into Israel. Encouraging protesters to chant “death to America” doesn’t help Palestinian prospects for peace or work toward a two-state solution. Abbas and Haniyeh think because they can whip Gaza and West Bank residents into a frenzy, they’ll pressure the U.S. and Israel into more concessions. More hostility toward the U.S. and violence in the Palestinian territories guarantees that a two- state solution won’t happen anytime soon.
Instead of telling Gaza and West Bank citizens that the U.S. is ready-and-willing to help Palestinians achieve their goal on an independent state, including negotiating for East Jerusalem as their capital, Palestinians denounce the U.S. with the same old slogans used by Iranian revolutionaries. Death to America chants sound empowering to beleaguered civilians, wracked by poverty and unemployment. Most Palestinians, because of years of brainwashing, can’t comprehend life in America or Israel, where governments actually provide citizens the economic conditions necessary to leading satisfying lives. Most Gaza and West Bank citizens don’t know that America’s welcomed immigrants from all corners of the globe to share in its unique freedoms and prosperity. Yet the death chants continue because Gaza and West Bank officials lie to their citizens about America and Israel.
Palestinian officials take any opportunity to denounce the U.S. and Israel, despite the countless opportunities and millions spent on peacemaking, not to mention foreign aid. Trump’s non-binding Dec. 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital states the obvious, since Israel has controlled West and East Jerusalem since 1967. Abbas has joined Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in denouncing Trump’s decision, pretending that if they get enough backing in the Islamic world that things will change. Erdogan especially doesn’t like that the Ottoman Turks lost Jerusalem in 1917 after controlling it fore over 500 years. Islamic powers all want Jerusalem returned Muslim rule. Only one obstacle: The state of Israel. Since taking East Jerusalem and the West Bank June 10, 1967 from Jordan at the end of Six-Day-War, Israel has been a faithful steward of Jerusalem’s holy sites.
Chanting “death to America and death to Israel” in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinians officials do nothing to advance the peace process. Refusing to meet with Vice President Mike Pence on his visit to the holy land, Abbas showed that he’s not fit for the peace process No country other than the U.S. is in the position to pull off a peace deal with Israel. Whether or not Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be a faithful peace broker for an independent Palestinian state. Abbas knows that Trump’s Dec. 6 decision is non-binding, simply expressing today’s facts on the ground. Instead of getting swept up in the U.N.’s anti-Semitic hysteria, Abbas should look to working with the Trump White House to get the best deal possible for a two-state solution. Burning American or Israeli flags and shouting “death to America or Israel” only makes things worse.
