Abbas caught between rock and hard place as Trump unveils Mideast plan
A strong Palestinian response to the Mideast peace plan requires national unity, which is currently lacking among Palestinian factions.
Palestinian presidential adviser Nabil Shaath reflected on the dilemma facing President Mahmoud Abbas following the unveiling of the Peace to Prosperity plan for the Middle East. “The president has re-emphasized the need for national unity, and has agreed to a request to go to Gaza to attend a unity meeting, has supported the need for popular struggle and has called for [revisiting] the functions of the Palestinian Authority,” he told Al-Monitor.
He added, “The decision to implement the decisions of the Palestine national and central councils will obviously include the decision to suspend security coordination.”
What Shaath was unable to say is whether the decisions that Abbas will make will force him to choose between political, or even personal, survival as part of the process of reviewing relations with Israel.
In a televised speech on Palestine TV the night of Jan. 28, Abbas listed the actions that can be taken in reaction to the American plan. Abbas spoke about the upcoming Arab League meeting Feb. 1, to be followed by a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the nonaligned countries and then a meeting of the African Union. But Abbas emphasized that Palestinians can’t expect help from outside “without doing our own part.”
