Global Research

Mahmoud Abbas today is in the terrible grip of the second phase of the Oslo accord of 1993, also known as “the peace process”. Many, including myself, have written about the death of this agonizing process, but in reality, it is not dead; it is very much in progress as scripted.

The epic tragedy of the “Peace Process” is not over until Abbas sings.

And he is singing, but off key, out of tune with the aspirations of the Palestinian people on whom he continues to be imposed as a puppet leader. [See The Tragedy of Mahmoud Abbas]

Some years ago, Abbas’s political script was accepted, albeit reluctantly, by a majority of West Bankers. It was a script imposed on Abbas by the so-called peace process, which was hammered out in total secrecy and which dictated a two-state “solution” as the only permissible solution to the problem created by the violent partitioning of historic Arab Palestine in 1948.

After a five-year interim period, the Oslo accord was supposedly meant to go into a second phase during which,

“…a final peace agreement to resolve the thorniest issues [would take place]: final borders (see map), security arrangements, Jerusalem, whether the Palestinians would have an independent state, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinian refugees’ claims to land and property left behind when they fled Israel.”  The [Negotiations | Shattered Dreams Of Peace | FRONTLINE | PBS]

Well, we are now in that second phase at long last. Instead of five years, the first phase took more than two long decades of stalling and consolidation of Israel’s gains “on the ground”, two decades of exploiting Palestinian resources and blatantly deceiving them. [See How “Oslo” turned diplomatic negotiation into compelling theatre]

And here we are at the end game:

• Final borders?

See: The Role of the Border in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“Israel-Palestine is clearly not a classic territorial dispute in the sense of there being a state ‘A,’ existing on territory ‘X’ and a state ‘B’ existing on territory ‘Y’ with a territorial area ‘Z’ which is in dispute between states ‘A’ and ‘B.’ If this is about territory, then perhaps it is easier to consider the conflict as being about all of the territory.”

• Israel’s security?
  8 billion a year in U.S. military aid to Israel starting in 2019

See: US Military Aid to Israel

• Jerusalem?
  Illegal annexation of Arab East Jerusalem is now recognized by the U.S.

See: Legalising the annexation of Jerusalem

• Independent state?
  Never

See: Netanyahu suggests a sovereign state might not work for Palestinians

• Jewish settlements in the West Bank?
  The more the merrier

See: Analysis | U.S. ambassador breaks with policy: ‘I think the settlements are part of Israel’

• Gaza?
  Under siege, on the brink and its elected government considered as a “terror organization” for not acquiescing to its own subjugation
  See:Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization Is a Bad Idea

“One shudders to think how much worse the attacks from Gaza against Israel would be if Hamas had even more ability to import weapons, construct tunnels, and develop bombs to harm Israel.”

And Who profits from keeping Gaza on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe?

• Palestinian claims to land and property?
  What?

See: Land and Settlement Issues

• Palestinian right of return?
  Over Israel’s dead body – literally.

See: A Plot to Destroy the Jewish State and TV report: Israel now wants Trump to reject Palestinian ‘right of return’

“The settler-colonial Jewish state formed on Palestinian Arab land almost 70 years ago is in de facto sovereignty over all of Palestine today, practicing its internationally-acknowledged illegal activities with impunity.”

Abbas is scrambling for a political raft to take him to any shore.

How out of tune is he?

Even Jordan is asking Abbas not to undermine Palestinian rights and former Egyptian assistant foreign minister, Abdullah Al-Ashal is calling him a tool for Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’.

Polls by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) clearly indicate how discredited Abbas’s political agenda has become.

So, what’s left, you might ask? Well, only Palestinian sumoud (steadfastness) and the strong belief, as Dr.HatemBazian, a Professor and co-founder of Zaytuna College, & Senior Lecturer, UC Berkeley, put it:

“A nation is not defeated until its will to resist is completely snuffed.”

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Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. She is an activist, researcher and retired professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, occupied West Bank.