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Comment and Opinion

The American Interest: The End of the Abbas Era, by Grant Rumley

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The closest the Israeli-Palestinian conflict got to an actual third intifada, or uprising, happened late this past month when Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas mobilized the shadowy militia elements of his party for widespread Friday protests. What the lone-wolf stabbing attacks that have plagued Israel for the past several years lacked—and what both the first and second intifadas had—was political leadership and support. In activating the Tanzim, a faction of his own party that Abbas has struggled to control, the Palestinian President was sanctioning his people’s unrest.

It was an unprecedented step from Abbas. In his 12 years as President, he has feuded with the elements of his party that carried out attacks during the second intifada, declared security coordination with Israel “sacred,” and largely avoided participating in large-scale protests. And yet, after Israel initiated several security measures in response to a terror attack at the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, Abbas crossed the Rubicon. He froze all ties with Israel, including security coordination, met with leaders of the protests, and urged his people to march in every public square across the West Bank. The crisis was finally resolved when Israel removed the security cameras and opened Bab al-Hutta (where the attack took place), but the impact of this near-catastrophic escalation will linger. Palestinians see the massive protests that rocked Jerusalem as the reason for Israel’s acquiescence. When tensions flare again, they’ll look to a political leadership willing to support them in these tactics.

Read the full article here.