Who Can Believe Mahmoud Abbas?
by Bassam Tawil • February 3, 2016 at 5:00 am
- As Hamas's power increases, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its security services are gradually losing their control of the West Bank.
- Both the Israelis and the Palestinians know that if the PA falls, the best casescenario is that Hamas will take over the West Bank. The worst case scenario is a welcome mat for ISIS.
Eighty-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is regularly fêted and flattered by Western leaders such as France's President François Hollande (left) and top European Union officials like Federica Mogherini and Jean-Claude Juncker (right).
After Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas threatened yet again that he would end security coordination with Israel, not only has he not ended it, but -- luckily for him, as it turned out -- it is now stronger than ever. The Israelis, it seems, exposed two separate Hamas networks in the West Bank, both of them planning a mass-casualty attack on Israel and the destruction of the rule of Mahmoud Abbas.
Mahmoud Abbas's other threat, that he will dissolve the Palestinian Authority (PA), and force Israel to fill the resulting vacuum and incorporate its residents and territories into Israel, also turned out to be cow plop.
