Weekly Commentary: Palestinian Abandonment of Oslo Agreements Window of
Opportunity?
Dr. Aaron Lerner 28 July, 2019

A committee composed of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Fatah’s Central
Committee and the PA is set to meet to draw up concrete mechanisms with a
specific timeline for the implementation of the Palestinian leadership’s
decision to suspend ALL the agreements signed with Israel - including
security cooperation.

The official PLO news agency - WAFA - noted that in apparent reference to
the security coordination, Mahmoud al-Aloul, deputy chairman of President
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement told Voice of Palestine radio today that "The
Palestinian leadership's decision to suspend the agreements signed with
Israel includes all the agreements signed with it and does not exclude
anything."

If indeed the Palestinians are serious about this, the challenge for Israeli
leadership today is to exploit this unilateral Palestinian move to Israel's
benefit rather than detriment.

On the simplest level, this Palestinian move would relieve Israel from the
need to continue with current policy of postponing substantive Israeli
action until after President Trump's team concedes that the "Deal of the
Century" is dead.

This would be a significant gain for the Jewish State since the second round
of Israeli elections has served to postpone the presentation, discussion and
ultimate demise of the "Deal of the Century" to the point that this process
could extend into the 2020 American elections window.

The Palestinian move would also serve to focus the Israeli elections on
addressing the post-Oslo challenge.

This would no doubt energize the national camp.

If Mahmoud Abbas isn't bluffing he is giving Prime Minster Binyamin
Netanyahu what could turn out to be a pivotal election campaign gift.

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