PA chairman Abu Mazen continues to attack Israel in the Arab and international arena ahead of the establishment of the new right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a speech he gave at the Sino-Arab conference held for the first time in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, he called on the countries of the world to boycott any Israeli government that does not advocate a two-state solution.
“We miss the days when there was a partner in Israel who believed in the two-state solution based on international legitimacy, signed agreements and renouncing violence and terrorism, which are the principles we are committed to and act according to”, Abu Mazen claimed.
The PA chairman’s words reflect his new strategy towards the establishment of the new Netanyahu government in Israel, and it is a return to the strategy of internationalizing the conflict that he started in 2011.
According to senior PA officials, Abu Mazen plans to continue the political attack on Israel in the international arena through a series of actions:
An effort to obtain full membership for the “State of Palestine” in the United Nations, signing a series of international treaties and applying to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for a lawsuit regarding the settlements and unilateral measures of Israel in the West Bank.
According to PA sources, the strategy of PA chairman Abu Mazen is closely related to the statement of Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague , that he intends to visit “Palestine” next year
Officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem estimate that the Netanyahu government will not cooperate with an investigation by the International Court of Justice in the Hague on any issue, nor will it allow Prosecutor General Karim Khan to visit the West Bank and reach Ramallah.
Abu Mazen’s speech in Saudi Arabia came after what he said to the Saudi “Al-Arabiya” channel, he pledged that the “PA will not be disbanded even if the Oslo Accords end” and sent a series of warnings to the new government that is to be formed in Israel. He said:” beware of the possibility that the Palestinian people lose their patience” and emphasized that he does not
support now a “military resistance” to Israel, but he may change his mind at any moment and then “everything will change”.
In fact, while returning to the strategy of internationalizing the conflict, the PA chairman announced that he is considering adopting the strategy of his predecessor Yasser Arafat regarding an armed intifada against Israel, a strategy he strongly opposed for the last two decades.
The PLO chairman now adopts a policy of walking on the brink and is very careful not to announce the freezing of the Oslo Accords and the end of security coordination with Israel as stipulated by the resolutions of the PLO Central Council.
Abu Mazen is afraid of losing the support of the international community and playing into the hands of the future Netanyahu government, he fears he will be blamed as the one who broke the rules and turned to the path of terrorism as Yasser Arafat did in 2000 after the failure of the Camp David summit.
He still wants to remain in the diplomatic circle despite the steps he believes the new Netanyahu government will take regarding the settlements and the war against terrorism in the West Bank.
The chairman of the Palestinian Authority fears that the freeze of the Oslo Accords and the switch to an armed intifada against Israel will result in the Netanyahu government carrying out an extensive military operation in the West Bank and will lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and thus the Palestinians will lose the rule of the Palestinian Authority, which he sees as the future Palestinian state.
Abu Mazen is in a difficult political situation and is trying to maneuver in view of the right-wing’s return to power in Israel, meanwhile the Palestinian Foreign Ministry is working intensively in world capitals to discredit Israel and incite against the establishment of the new Netanyahu government.
In recent days, several countries have sent warnings to Israel, including Jordan, Egypt and the United Kingdom, against the possibility of annexing territories in the West Bank and changing the status quo on the Temple Mount even before the new government in Israel was formed.
According to political sources in Jerusalem, the Biden administration sent messages to Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu not to change the status quo on the Temple Mount or to take unilateral steps regarding the settlements in the West Bank because this could affect the security coordination between Israel and the US on the issue of Iran. It seems that the administration is trying to take advantage of the
needs of the future Netanyahu government for advanced weapons made in the USA, for the purpose of preparing for a military action against Iran, in order to curb its policy on the Palestinian issue.
