The Palestinians\u2019 eternal \u2018no\u2019
Thirty uniformed men surrounded Ashraf Ghanem’s home in Hebron, the West Bank, last weekend. He managed somehow to escape and, now in hiding, tell The Jerusalem Post he’s afraid for his life.
Sounds like a scene from Fauda, the spectacularly popular Israeli series on Netflix depicting the realities of terror-ridden life in the Palestinian territories. But what happened to Ghanem was all too real.
The men who arrested Ghanem, an owner of a Hebron furniture company, were members of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces. His “crime”? Ghanem was part of a 13-member Palestinian delegation to last week’s economic workshop in Bahrain aimed at creating jobs and opportunity for Palestinians.
Palestinian President Mahmoud boycotted the conference, and his PA vowed to punish anyone going to Bahrain. Another businessman, Saleh Abu Mayaleh, was arrested and later released under US pressure. Palestinian media, meanwhile, daily trash the delegation’s leader, Ashraf Jabari, as a collaborator with Israel and therefore a traitor.
Such accusations are “unconscionable,” tweeted President Trump’s negotiator, Jason Greenblatt: “No! Betrayal is the PA arresting its own people for having the courage to discuss new ideas for a better life.”
Greenblatt and his colleagues came in for some knuckle-rapping of their own in the US and European media. The critics’ main challenge to Greenblatt and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner: How can you help the Palestinian economy without any Palestinians in attendance?
Well, now we know the answer. The workshop’s idea was to replenish the Palestinian economy with up to $50 billion in foreign investment. It was modeled on the post-WWII Marshall Plan, per Kushner. Yet the handful of West Bank residents who dared to be intrigued by such a vision now live in fear.
We’ve seen Palestinians rejection of well-intentioned outside help before. Remember Israel’s 2005 withdrawal of all settlements and soldiers from Gaza? Outside donors raised more than $13 million to assure that the settlers’ hot houses, growing flowers and vegetables for export to Europe, would be transferred to Gazans, creating jobs and business opportunities.
But hours after the last Israeli settlement was evacuated, a Palestinian mob first looted, then burned those hothouses to the ground.
Ramallah now rejects help from America and wealthy Arab countries out of a similar irrational hatred. Only, now Abbas and the PA find themselves alone among their brother Arabs: Arab leaders for the most part ignored Abbas’ call to boycott the Bahrain conference.
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Recounting a recent conversation with an unnamed Arab leader, David Harris of the American Jewish Congress noted that the leader didn’t even mention the Palestinians. “They’re no longer a priority,” the unnamed leader told Harris. “No matter what’s on the peace table, their reply is always no. We want strategic and economic ties with Israel and don’t want to be held back by” Palestinians.
Regrettably, many of the peoples of the Arab world have yet to join such leaders in overcoming decades of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic animus. But the Palestinian leadership can no longer take solace in those sentiments. Their own failures are increasingly under the regional spotlight.
And at home, as well. While Abbas cried “treachery” and trashed the Bahrain participants, Palestinian social media was more interested in other developments: The PA’s top brass gave itself 20-percent salary hikes, even while blaming America for cuts to social services and salaries for everyone else.
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Critics of the Bahrain conference predicted (hoped?) that its failure would isolate America. Those Europeans and traditional American peace processors have long taken their cues from Ramallah. No wonder they fail to notice that it’s the PA that’s increasingly left behind.
For decades, it has been an article of faith: Palestinian leaders should be given unconditional support to promote the “two state solution” — a misnamed formula, as one state already exists, thrives and hardly needs outside help.
The Bahrain economy-first approach may or may not succeed, but the conference showed that the main stumbling block to creating a Palestinian state is none other than Palestinian leaders.
Twitter: @BennyAvni
