Abbas fears new Israeli right-wing govt, Palestinian official says

The source estimated that Abbas “is determined in his days to resort to an all-out political confrontation with Israel and the United States, as he has no other means of action.”

By Baruch Yedid, TPS

“The Palestinian Authority estimates that the next right-wing government led by [Benjamin] Netanyahu, [Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir will work to implement parts of former U.S. President, Donald Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ and will adopt sections from it,” an official in the Palestinian Authority told the Tazpit Press Service.

For its majority in the Knesset, the new Netanyahu government will likely depend on the Religious Zionism party, whose leaders — Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir — have taken hardline stances on any future concessions or agreements to be made with the Palestinians.

According to the PA source, its leadership believes that this scenario is “very possible” in light of the apparent agreements between Netanyahu and his partners from the right-wing parties, and especially in light of the intention to make legal 65 outposts in Judea and Samaria and to cancel the Disengagement Law, which gave up Israeli sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria along with the evacuation of all Jews from the Israeli communities of Gush Katif in Gaza.

They are also concerned with reports that Smotrich wants to dismantle the Civil Administration, which coordinates these areas as territories outside of Israel, and to annex to Israel the areas known as Area C. Area C includes the areas of Judea and Samaria that, under the 1993 Oslo Accords, are under full Israeli legal and security control, largely where Israeli towns are located.

The source added, “In light of this, it appears that [PA Chairman] Abu Mazen [aka Mahmoud Abbas] has decided to no longer submit to American and Israeli pressure and to act on the political level, including by examining the possibility of being accepted as a full member of the UN and receiving UN protection for the residents of the PA.”

The source estimated that Abbas “is determined in his days to resort to an all-out political confrontation with Israel and the United States, as he has no other means of action.”

According to a paper distributed to senior officials in the Palestinian Authority, “Bezalel Smotrich will also work to deduct the full amount that the Palestinian Authority pays to security prisoners, to define the Palestinian Authority as a terrorist entity, to apply the death sentence to Palestinian terrorists, and to remove the High Court’s powers regarding the demolition of Palestinian terrorists’ homes.”

“Smotrich formed a strong alliance with Ben-Gvir,” the paper states, “and he opposes any concession on the lands which he considers Jewish property. He works to encourage immigration and settlement without borders and to train outposts and to apply sovereignty over areas C and to dissolve the Civil Administration as a step towards annexation.”

About Knesset member Ben-Gvir, the paper said, “This is a very extreme person, a lawyer who defends Jewish terrorist elements suspected of harming Palestinians, including the ‘Hilltop Youth.’ Ben-Gvir is also very active in the Jewish settlement in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood [in Hebrew Shimon Hatzadik, near the Old City) in east Jerusalem, and he may also to act for the deportation of Israeli Arabs and to bring Jews to prayers at Al Aqsa.”

Regarding the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) party that Itamar Ben-Gvir leads, the paper said that “it has become a factor that should not be ignored in Israeli politics and a vital link in the right-wing bloc and in any Israeli government that will be formed in light of the results of the recent elections.”

“Among the goals of this party,” the paper states, “is the preservation of the lands of Israel as given “by a divine promise from the books of the Torah, and no one has the right to give them up even in future generations…

“The party is working to deport immigrants who entered Israel through the borders to preserve the Jewish character of the country and to preserve the state’s lands, and it will enact death sentences for terrorists.

“This is a party that sees the war against Israel’s enemies as a mandatory step that must be carried out without compromises or concessions or negotiations, in order to bring about Jewish Israeli sovereignty over the entire country, in the territories conquered in the Six Day War.”

Furthermore, according to the paper, “the party aspires to dominate Jewish law over the existing judicial system in Israel and  aspires to full Israeli sovereignty over the entire territory while encouraging the immigration of Jews from all the diasporas to ensure a Jewish majority.”

2022 electionsBenjamin NetanyahuBezalel SmotrichItamar Ben-GvirMahmoud AbbasPalestinian Authority