No Kaddish For Palestine

I’ve just heard some wonderful news…even better than the Yair scandal.

The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and the President of the Palestinian Leadership Organization, Saab Erekat, have just announced that they are contemplating withdrawal of recognition of the State of Israel and no further contact with the Trump administration.

I don’t know how President Trump feels about it but this writer is over-joyed. We have tried for many years to find a way towards a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians. To no avail. The more we tried, the more they resisted.

Now, if Ramallah follows through with their leadership’s plans, there will be no recognition of Israel, no cooperation with security, no contacts and ultimately, no independent Palestinian state.

Without the approval of the State of Israel, a Palestinian state will be still-born, not breathing, not existing.

That can be very good for us. Without US intervention, the Palestinians must turn to the European Union and the international heads of governments who generally support the Palestinian dream. But the dream has long ago turned into a nightmare.

The ones who suffer from this horse-play are the simple people of Palestine who look to their leaders to guarantee them a state of their own, only to be constantly disappointed.

What avenues remain open to the Palestinian people? Can they march in their streets in mass protests like the ones in Iran? Will they be allowed to hold civil disobedience protests or will they be gunned down by the forces of the PLO?

In interviews with Palestinians in different towns and villages, correspondents report that the people are very dissatisfied with their leaders in Ramallah. Many expressed doubt that Abbas will follow through with his intention to cut off all relations with Israel. It is quite possible that he is simply making an idle threat, playing his cards close to his chest to see what will develop. Palestinian leaders from Arafat to the present have frequently made threats which they were unable to carry out. Nothing new here.

Sympathy is not a word which I would use in regard to the Palestinian people. Disgust is a better word. It is simply disgusting that normal human beings allow themselves to be used as political pawns without any attempt to overthrow a corrupt government.

If Abbas and Erekat do, in fact, go through with their threats of non-recognition and non-cooperation, they and the people they allegedly represent will be the losers.

For Israel, it will be another victory.

I don’t know if and when the threats become Palestinian policy. But one thing I do know for certain.

I will not mourn nor recite the kaddish prayer for the death of Palestine.