Telling the U.S. that cutting funding in half at the United Nations Relief and Work Agency [UNRWA] is an act of war, Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority spokesman Nahil Abu Rudeinah showed exactly what’s wrong with Palestinian leadership. Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] Dec. 13, 2017 that the U.S. can no longer play any role in Mideast peace talks. Abbas chided 71-year-old President Donald Trump after announcing Dec. 6, 2017 that he was moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Instead of returning to the peace table, Abbas beat the war drums, telling the OIC that there would be no peace in the Middle East. Abbas insisted there would be no “peace and stability” until Trump rescinded his decision on Jerusalem.
Preaching to the anti-Israel choir at the OIC, Abbas pounded his chest spewing hateful rhetoric. “Jerusalem is and will forever be the capital of the Palestinian state . . . There will be no peace, no stability without that,” said Abbas. Abbas’ belligerent words and threats prompted Trump to cut the funding to UNRWA for Palestinians, essentially denouncing the U.S. as Mideast peace broker. After forty-years of U.S. diplomacy, numerous summits, an untold dollars spent on Mideast peacemaking, Abbas rejects the U.S. because Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Since the end the of the Six Day War June 10, 1967, Israel annexed Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s East Jerusalem and West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula in 1979 in exchange for a peace treaty with Egypt, thanks to former President Jimmy Carter and Egyptian President Anwar Sedat.
FLO founder Yasser Arafat orchestrated the Six-Day-War with Egypt and four other Arab states, only to watch his plan backfire. Palestinians controlled not one inch of sovereign territory before the Six Day War, yet have claimed Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian lands as its own territory, something called “occupied territories.” Had Arafat not gone to war against Israel in 1967, there’d be no land for a sovereign state other than bargaining with Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Cutting UNRWA’s budget from $125 million or $65 million and providing Israel $705 million in military aid, prompted Rudeinah to call Trump’s actions an “equivalent to a declaration of war on the Palestinians people.” Palestinians, or any foreign government for that matter, have no right to U.S. aid, especially when the leadership rejects the U.S. as its historic role as Mideast peace broker, regardless of Turmp’s view on Jerusalem.
If Palestinians want their aid reinstated, they need to show gratitude for U.S. humanitarian support, and, at the same time, reaffirm the U.S. special role as Mideat peace broker. Abbas can’t expect the U.S. to continue funding UNRWA when he publicly denounced the U.S. role as peace broker. Abbas is in no position to tell the U.S. where it should put its embassy in Jerusalem or anywhere else. When he tells the OIC that Jerusalem is Palestine’s capital, he doesn’t have the cooperation of Hamas in the Gaza Strip to do anything. Currently, Palestinians are split between Gaza and the West Bank, with little hope of reconciliation. If anything, Hamas would like Abbas to step down to let it govern both Gaza and the West Bank. Abbas can’t expect the U.S. to continue funding UNRWA when the PLO insults Trump and denounces the U.S. as Mideast peace broker.
Abbas wants an anti-Israel international peace conference to rule on borders for a new Palestinian state without direct talks with Israel. Abbas knows that the U.S. and Israel would not go along with a one-sided arrangement, expecting U.N.-sponsored states to go to war with Israel to enforce Palestine’s borders. That’s precisely what the PLO, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq tried to do in 1967, resulting in Israel seizing territory as a buffer zone. Abbas hasn’t come to grips with two basic realities: (1) He has no leverage to impose a two-state solution and (2) he represents only one-half the Palestinian people. “We do not accept any role of the United States in the political process from now on, because it is completely biased toward Israel,” Abbas told the OIC Dec. 13. Without any real influence with Israel, Abbas shows that his demands only make things worse for Palestinians.
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have no interest in re-litigating the 1967 Six Day War. Abbas talks like he’s got the whole Arab World ready to fight a new war with Israel, when, in fact, no one’s interested in fighting Palestinians’ battles. If Abbas wants his UNRWA funds reinstated, he needs to re-affirm the U.S. role as impartial Mideast peace broker. Whatever Trump’s views on Jerusalem, it didn’t preempt Palestinians rights to negotiate for a two-state solution , including hosting East Jerusalem as its future capital. Threatening more terror or seeking a coalition of Arab states to battle Israel is an outrageous approach to peacemaking. Whether Palestinians like it or not, the U.S. has every right to move its embassy where it sees fit. Trump never said that, in any new peace talks, Palestinians weren’t open to negotiating for East Jerusalem as its capital or other important demands.
