IMRA - And what if Abbas returns the keys?

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
03 November '11

Palestinian officials are now threatening that if the Palestinians don’t get what they want that Mahmoud Abbas will close down the PA and hand the keys back to Israel.

It would be best for Israel to be prepared so that such a scenario could be an opportunity rather than a punishment for the Jewish State.

Israel’s goal in the event of such a move should be to prevent the development of a crises that is exploited by the Palestinians to introduce foreign actors into the mix.

To achieve this, Israel would have to maintain a semblance of normality.

First and foremost this would require being able to ignore the ex-officials of the PA while avoiding a humanitarian crisis.

Israel must be in a position to shift from interfacing with Palestinian officials at a national level to a regional and municipal level.

We have experience in this already.

Even in the worst of times in Jerusalem-Ramallah relations, Israelis and Palestinians cooperated on a municipal level to restore or maintain vital services.

One of the biggest tests Israel would face would be maintaining the flow of goods and people between the West Bank and the outside world.

Israeli planners should set as a goal to actually speed up the movement of cargo to and from the West Bank. It would also make sense to prepare administrative provisions to avoid the situation that equipment contributed from overseas for Palestinian humanitarian projects gets stuck in Israeli ports because of disputes over the payment of various duties and taxes to Israel.

Israel should also be prepared to efficiently substitute Israeli travel documents for the ones issued by the then defunct PA so that international movement is not impeded.

Then, of course, is the thorny issue of the Palestinian security forces.

While Israel wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with Palestinian cops associated directly with a specific municipality or regional groupings of municipalities, the American trained and armed Palestinian troops who answer to the Palestinian federal authorities could present a serious challenge if it is not possible to shift their allegiance to municipalities or regions.

It would not be easy.

But with proper planning and unity Israel can insure that the dissolution of the PA becomes an opportunity rather than punishment.

And the more prepared Israel is for this challenge, the more likely that the Palestinians will opt to drop the idea.

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