Zev Chafets, Columnist

Abbas Is Haunted By a 40-Year-Old Peace Plan

The Palestinian leader doesn’t want to acknowledge that the red lines of the past may be shifting. Autonomy for the West Bank isn’t crazy.

November 6, 2018 at 7:30 AM UTC

Corrected

November 6, 2018 at 9:00 AM UTC

By Zev Chafets

Zev Chafets is a journalist and author of 14 books. He was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine.

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Photographer: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images

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Last week, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas warned the Palestinian Liberation Organization national council that the Palestinian cause was in dire straits. “The enemy plans to have a mini-state in Gaza and autonomy in the West Bank.”

Abbas believes the “enemy” (a term encompassing Israel, Hamas and the Trump administration) is plotting to create an independent Palestinian state in Gaza. This he has sworn to resist. “No [Palestinian] state will be established in Gaza, no [Palestinian] state will be established without Gaza, and no state will be established with temporary borders,” he told the PLO council.