Suspending US aid to Palestinian Authority pushes for end of Abu Mazen

Paris - Special to Reference

The suspension of $200 million in US aid to humanitarian programmes has weakened Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while Israeli public opinion remains divided over this measure.

Mahmoud Abbas is struggling with Donald Trump cutting off all aid as his arch-rival Hamas negotiates with Israel on a truce deal in the Islamist-controlled Gaza Strip. Thus, the president of the Palestinian Authority finds himself besieged in all directions.

The latest blow he received was by the end of this week when Donald Trump threatened to scrap $200 million in humanitarian aid.

Thus, President Mahmoud Abbas, who has boycotted the United States since Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the transfer of his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city of Jerusalem. It was an initiative that angered Palestinians seeking to annex the eastern part of the city which is taken by Israel as the capital of their new state.

To complete the picture, Trump has resorted to a force-based approach in terms of money. This year, he decided to reduce the US contribution to UNRWA from $360 million in 2017 to $60 million this year, forcing the organization to dismiss 20,000 employees through its 700 schools.

Hanan al-Ashrawi, a senior PLO official, said that this was a "bargaining". The organization's secretary-general, Saeb Erekat, said the sanctions would cause "the disappearance of the Palestinian Authority," a scenario that would not be in Israel's favor as it would have to assume the role of the Palestinian Authority instead of the West Bank, "employing Palestinian personnel, running schools, hospitals and local services, which is a heavy burden on them."

"End of Concert"

For his part, Israeli Minister Tzachi Hanegbi congratulated President Trump on his decision, saying: "Mahmoud Abbas knows that the concert is over." This politician, close to Benjamin Netanyahu, does not believe in the scenario of the disappearance of the Palestinian Authority. "These are no more than childish arguments Palestinians make so that Israel presses the United States and convinces it not to reduce aid.” 

Opposition leader and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed reservations about the US sanctions against Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli government's policy, saying that it harms the reasonable elements of the Palestinians and supports the Islamic conservatives (Hamas), something that does not help Israel's security."

Both officials agree, however, that Abbas despite his flaws, he has not resorted to terrorism." There is, however, "total ambiguity" about what could happen if Mahmoud Abbas, 83, became ill. Hamas is likely to gain power in the West Bank.

On the Gaza front, things also look bad for Abbas, where Hamas negotiates some "arrangements" with Israel brokered by the United Nations and Egypt on a long-term truce after five months of confrontations. These confrontations left more than 170 dead and thousands wounded Palestinians along the border.

Abbas found himself excluded from the talks, which resumed in Cairo last Sunday, and sought to impose control over the Gaza Strip after Hamas pulled out of it for decades. 

However, nothing has been proven so far in the success of these talks. On the Israeli side, the army's chief of staff supports an agreement that would ease the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in exchange for an end to violence by Hamas. Unless an agreement is reached, it will be difficult to avoid war, military officials said on the Israeli Army Radio.