Is dissolving the Palestinian Authority an essential next step?
Putting the occupation and all that goes with it under greater and concentrated scrutiny ought to make calling Israel to account for its defiance of international law something less than the mission impossible it currently is.
Question: How could the political and economic vacuums left by the dissolution of the PA be filled?
There doesn’t have to be a political vacuum. The executive committee of the PLO, preferably with new elections to it, would again be the institutional representative of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians. If diaspora Palestinians then put their act together (as Jewish supporters of Israel right or wrong have always done) the Palestine National Council (PNC) could be brought back to life, refreshed and re-invigorated by new elections. A Palestinian parliament-in-exile that could speak to power with one voice on behalf of Palestinians everywhere would be far more effective than the PA.
The main argument against dissolving the PA is that the loss of American and European funding for it would have serious even catastrophic consequences for the occupied and oppressed Palestinians, not only the 100,000 or so who are employed by the PA.
But would this have to be the case?
I say “No” because the regimes of the most wealthy Arab states could easily provide the replacement funding needed. The incentive for them to do so can be simply stated. If they refused a PLO request for funding to keep the Palestinian cause alive with some hope of obtaining an acceptable amount of justice, they would be exposed like never before, fully naked, as traitors to the cause and, by default, complicit in Zionism’s enterprise. My speculation is that the regimes of the most wealthy Arab states would not want to be seen as such by their own and other Arab masses.
It was Saudi Arabia’s King Feisal, in my view the first and the last great Arab leader of modern times, who fought and won a political battle with Henry Kissinger to get Arafat to the UN to make his gun and olive branch speech and secure recognition for the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In a sense King Feisal was the PLO’s political godfather.
As I write I find myself wondering if Qatar’s new, young ruler, Emir Tamim Hamad al-Thani, could emerge as his region’s Feisal-like wise man and become the PLO’s financial godfather. Hamas’s political leadership is allowed to live and be headquartered in Qatar and that, perhaps, is an indication that it’s pragmatic ruling family is guarding against being on the wrong side of history. Qatar alone could make the necessary investment to keep the Palestinian cause financially alive in the event of the dissolution of the PA.
So it seems to me that an economic disaster for the occupied and oppressed Palestinians would not be inevitable if the PA was dissolved and American and European funding was not then available to the replacement Palestinian leadership.
It is, of course, only the Palestinians themselves who can cause the dynamics of the conflict to be changed by insisting on the dissolution of the PA and handing back to Israel full and complete responsibility and accountability for occupation.
My hope is that activist groups of all faiths and none everywhere which campaign for justice for the Palestinians will urge them to do so.
Footnote
Events in Iraq and Syria are dominating the news and I find myself wondering how different things might have been today if at a very early stage of the Syrian uprising Obama had had the wisdom to say to Putin something like, “What’s your price for requiring Assad to stand down and make way for open and honest elections?”
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confoundmeonce:
September 29th, 2014 at 3:15 am
Alan, You know full well that Obama Is not going to Opt for Peace on Any Quarter…He Is not His OWN ”Boss”,[ but is being played on every turn..by the Zionists Who have infiltrated Our USETABe Guvmt.. In every Manner Possible... With or Without b,Obamas' Approvable Or Assistance.] I think he Knew What HIS duties Consisted of..Even Before he Put his bid in For the Presidency. And NOW>> He Has to Follow Orders to the Very Inth..or else. To resign is not in the cards for him. And even if he WAS allowed to Do so…look What A Zionist Stand-in is Left..J.Biden ! Your Ideas sound reasonable enough that there is NO reason Why They would Not Work…. BUT..This Country ( the US of A. Has TO Be in Total Agreement..Along with The Palestinians of Gaza. And I don`t see that happening. Unless The “”Arabian Countries WERE Willing TO Get Involved in a Helpful manner..It Won`t work. SO>>Where Do you Think THAT would Leave The Gazan Palestinians ? Right in the Center of The Biggest Genocide The Isreals Have Pulled Off..to Date…That is Where. There IS Only ONE Answer that Will WORK. Cut OFF every Nickles` worth of “”AID” This US of A. is Supplying To the ISREALis..Put A Total STOP on Any Kind of Military Supplies..OR RE-Furbishments on All The Military equipment They have now, And Stop Telling the World That ISREAL is “”Our Biggest Ally And Friend in the M.E. When The Whole World Knows What A Farcical lie That IS.. [And So do The Majority OF The American People.] This IS My Summation of What Could Work. Nothing else Short Of this, Will. Continue as IS, And This Country will not Survive…BUT Neither will that Stolen piece of Territory That Called ITSELF ‘Israel will be Left Standing. THEN..Peace just Might Prevail Over Some Portions of This World. No more Instigations Of war.. Or The Untold Miseries That Abound Because OF these Crazies Who Thought They Could OWN And Rule The Whole World. [Only God Will Do This.]
Sami:
September 29th, 2014 at 11:44 am
Dissolving the bankrupt/incompetent PA would most certainly be most helpful. Its silence is appalling when Obama utters verbal garbage when he said it is “barbaric” for Palestinian resistance to capture an invading Israeli soldier, and now we have the latest gem! We know that the PA depends on handouts for it finances, but it is time for it to realise that these handouts are actually for Israel’s benefit. Therefore, the PA should not shy from telling anyone, be it a Zionist subjugated super power or otherwise, where they can stuff their handouts. The worst that can happens is to free itself from bondage.
Rehmat:
September 29th, 2014 at 5:43 pm
PA president Mahmoud Abbas, whose elected mandate expired in January 2009, is kept on the post by the US-Israel-EU, as a counter-balance to Hamas and other Islamic resistance groups. Abbas has been proven as a double agent who wants destruction of any genuine military resistance to the Zionist entity.
http://rehmat1.com/2010/09/24/abbas-the-double-agent/
Ronald Douglas Kennedy:
September 29th, 2014 at 7:11 pm
Greetings Allan: Yes your call on the three strikes are valid, as the game is designed now un winnable by both sides. there never will be that hand shake at the end.
For team “Justice Desired” in law. VS, Team “Its All Our” as our God told use, we are the chosen team, to take all we want,hear and any where?
To put ones open hands on the zio chopping block’s, be herded as chicken’s in to pins to banish, or left to vanish from living conditions, contaminated foods. Seems, only to feed the squatters / developers, never ending greedy lust, for others lands.
The stands are fuller and fuller year after year for freedom in this game, for real Democracy in action. And they slowly are starting to demand it be played by equal rules.
The USA. is in action again in the Middle East, with a great world collation of Country’s, in the continuing battle for humanity, and justice.
But our supposed greatest ally in the Middle East, aka. zio Land’s, is not invited as she is looked on by the majority, if not all of players, in not having any honor, in any peace process. Only lobbying for war’s against hear next conquest. In its All Ours, God Promised Just Use. The world collation has work to correct hear also. Shalom
Ronald Douglas Kennedy
Rehmat:
October 1st, 2014 at 1:06 pm
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his theatrical speech at the UN General Assembly on Monday, once again showed his mental illness by calling the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) “terrorist rights council”. Netanyahu also likened Iran with Nazi Germany.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/10/01/netanyahu-unhrc-is-a-terrorist-organization/