Since the establishment of the country, all Israeli governments have pursued peace with its Arab neighbors. The late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed a historic peace treaty with Egypt and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed a similar peace treaty with Jordan. The State of Israel is proud of both peace agreements and has sought to replicate them with other Arab states. However, over the past decade, no one has pursued peace with the greater Arab world more aggressively than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The establishment of peaceful relations with the United Arab Emirates surprised many people. However, at the same time, it revealed the true face of the Palestinian Authority. Instead of signing peace agreements, the P.A. encourages its citizens to attack Border Police officers in Jerusalem, glorifies the launching of incendiary balloons and Qassam rockets into Israel and systematically incites violence and terrorism.
In the same spirit, Palestinian leaders and P.A. media outlets have described Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as a “traitor,” “collaborator” and even a “tumor” for making peace with the State of Israel. Since 1993, the Palestinian Authority has rejected every peace offer that came their way. Simultaneously, they have actively attempted to maintain the Arab world’s opposition towards Israel and have worked against other Muslim countries making peace with the Jewish state.
The Palestinian Authority and its leadership cannot continue to hold the Arab world hostage. The P.A. wants the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to continue and to take precedence over other things happening in the Middle East.
The Palestinian issue has become more of a campaign to collect donations from the international community than a political issue involving disputed land and a so-called occupation. Numerous Palestinian leaders and organizations have made money off of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the suffering that it has caused to both peoples. Numerous international organizations have made millions off of this conflict, while in reality doing nothing except fostering hatred. These organizations are anti-Semitic and hate Jews, always hiding under the Palestinian cause in order to promote bigotry via the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Naturally, these international organizations are not interested in ending the conflict and continue to fund the Palestinians.
For this reason, the P.A. has a financial incentive to oppose peace, for the day that they become a state will be the day the free handouts from their donors will end and they will have to build up an economy in order to finance their people.
The Arab countries in the Persian Gulf have also now seen the true face of the Palestinian Authority. After they invested heavily in the Palestinian cause, they have watched the P.A. support Iran and Qatar against their strategic interests.
Nevertheless, the leaders of the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf have not betrayed the Palestinian people. On the contrary, the UAE secured from Israel the concession of the Jewish state halting the application of Israeli sovereignty more than 30 percent of Judea and Samaria. However, this did not stop the Palestinian Authority from attacking the UAE, even before they had a chance to examine the details of the agreement.
The Palestinian response was reckless and hasty, which greatly damaged how the international community views them. It would have been more prudent for P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas or one of his ministers to have traveled to Abu Dhabi to clarify matters before slandering the UAE in front of the entire Arab world and the international community.
Nevertheless, P.A. policy has always been based upon hatred, not logic and reason. For this reason, they opposed the UAE-Israel peace agreement before reading it, just as they opposed President Trump’s peace vision even before he issued it to the public.
