Dissolution and B.D.S.

The Palestinian Authority, exhausted by a negotiation with Israel that it deems useless, is betting on three methods to break the deadlock. One of such is B.D.S., which stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions, although they can’t formally support it or else they would lose the insufficient-but-imperative aid of American diplomacy. Second is its association with numerous international organizations and extensions of the U.N., which they could use to aggravate Israel politically. The third and most serious is its voluntary disbandment, with which they would leave Jerusalem and the U.N. with the hot potato of having to procure law enforcement, health care and education—a modicum of government—for the Palestinians of the West Bank. The hopes that something from all that could force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of office are however less than minimal. Furthermore, it would signify a falling out or end of talks with Washington.

This final phase of the Palestinian-Israeli diplomatic struggle began in September of 2010 when President Obama met at the White House with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu and the monarchs of Jordan and Saudi Arabia to re-launch the process of direct talks among the parties. Under the tireless guidance of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the negotiations to establish a peace plan have been progressing in fits and starts since July 2013. They are supposed to conclude by April 29, so that by the end of the year their implementation will be fine-tuned and the peace treaty certainly signed in 2014. They need to hurry because Obama’s term ends in 2016.

The PA has tried several times to put an end to this series of meetings: On the first Friday of every month, Israel announces new construction in the occupied territories and also has yet to free the last group of 106 Palestinian prisoners to which it had agreed. Jerusalem’s counterargument is that the PA has broken its agreements by trying to internationalize its cause. Still today no one knows if the negotiations will go past April, although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has let them twist his arm so many times that one more won’t make a difference.

The B.D.S. movement only began to gather strength in recent years. Remember that the Arab League has been holding its own boycott since the creation of Israel in 1948, with no effect on the ground. Those three initiatives, especially the B.D.S., favor immobilizing Jerusalem as much they favor the existence of Hamas, which has not given up on destroying the Zionist state. The meeting of the three methods, of which dissolution is even worse than returning to square one, as if there had never been Palestinian autonomy, constitutes a catastrophe without relief.

Despite everything, the U.S. cannot allow that journey to nowhere to fade away, be it together or separately. But maintenance of the status quo negotiator is not thus less encouraging.