Late last night Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced that the Palestinians are no longer bound by previously signed agreements with either Israel or the United States.
Addressing an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas stressed that “The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the obligations based on these understandings and agreements,” including the long tight security coordination between the Israeli military and Palestinian Security apparatus, which was regarded by top Israeli defense officials as a key ingredient in combating Islamist terrorism.
The Palestinian leader further warned that any full or partial annexation of the West Bank by Israel would nullify the Oslo Accords, adding that the Palestinians have remained committed to resolving the conflict on the basis of a two-state solution.
Among the numerous arguments made by the Palestinian leader, President Abbas reiterated his call on the European Union, Arab states and other nations to impose sanctions against the Jewish State for its aspiration to assert its sovereignty over territories which the Palestinians believe they are entitled to.
In response a senior Israeli security official told TV7 that Abbas’s remarks are brazenly aimed at convincing the international community to impose punitive measures against Israel, while in practice, the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah knows full-well that its very survival is directly connected to the referred to ‘security coordination’. He explained that Chairman Abbas knows that an end to the security coordination with Israel would ultimately mean that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad would sweep-in to overpower its West Bank rivals – a reality neither Ramallah nor Jerusalem are interested in.
Despite the PA’s animosity, Israel permitted the historic landing of a cargo plane from the United Arab Emirates to land at the Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv laden with supplies to help the Palestinians combat the coronavirus.
The direct route taken by the UAE’s flag carrier Etihad Airways from the Persian Gulf state to Israel marks the first known flight between the two countries, even though they do not maintain diplomatic relations.
The development signifies a continuity of warming ties between the Jewish State and the so-called moderate Arab world, which is becoming increasingly more evident.
Palestinian officials did not immediately respond to TV7’s request for comment vis-à-vis the aid-shipment earmarked for the Palestinian population of the West Bank.