Israel once again misses an opportunity and conveys weakness in the fight against Palestinian terrorism and Palestinian defiance.
When the Palestinian Authority collapses, instead of taking advantage of this and demanding strategic prices from it in exchange for restoration and rescue, Israel again does not stand up to the pressure, from outside and inside, and continues to restore the PA at a low price of temporary peace.
This week another summit was held in Sharm el-Sheikh of senior representatives from Israel, the USA, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, following on from a previous summit about a month ago in Jordan, with the aim of discussing the future of the collapsing Palestinian Authority.
There is no doubt that Israel is not interested in the collapse of the PA. Security coordination is important and Israel does not wish to return to managing the civilian population by itself, and rightfully so. But the opportunity must be taken and conditions must be placed on the authority before it is saved from collapse.
It must be remembered that the Palestinian Authority is the one that produces terrorism before it helps a little in the fight against it. She is the one who continues daily incitement against Israel and an open call for the continuation of the armed struggle, including among children and youth who join terrorism more recently. Terrorism continues to emerge from its territory, senior officers of the PA incite and encourage and become heroes when their children go out to carry out terrorist attacks with their encouragement.
The Authority continues to pay the families of the terrorists and is not willing to give up these payments even despite the Israeli government’s offsets. The PA continues to initiate anti-Israeli diplomatic activity in the institutions of the United Nations, calls for boycotts against Israel, goes against Arab countries that normalize relations with Israel and in every way shows the world that its path is not to peace, but to war, not to the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, but to the continuation of the armed struggle and the continuation of refusal and opposition to all solution and all order.
The collapse of the PA is the opportunity to charge its leaders a high price for saving it. Precisely now, when the PA is weak, when political and economic support for it is at a low ebb, when the Americans and Europeans are busy with Ukraine and the Arab countries are busy with Iran, and when it is already clear to the whole world that it is collapsing because of its refusal and corruption and not because of Israel - Israel must lead a stubborn line against the United States and its allies who really want security in the region , because the PA must be demanded to cease the armed struggle, recognize Israel as a Jewish state, stop inciting and encouraging terrorism, stop taking over Area C contrary to the Oslo Accords, make brave decisions and start living. This must be forced on the PA with economic and diplomatic levers.
Unfortunately, once again, Israel is doing the opposite. Again she grants benefits and freezes her construction, and this only to get temporary peace. We learned that benefits and gifts only encourage continued pressure and violence. We must not keep repeating the same mistakes.
It is necessary to work for a long-term strategic change in the conduct of the Authority and not just to maintain a short-term silence, and this should be demanded and strived for in every situation and at every opportunity.
