TEL AVIV – The Palestinian Authority on Saturday boasted that it has managed to “incapacitate” President Donald Trump’s as yet unveiled peace plan, which it sees as no more than a “conspiracy” aimed at “liquidating” the Palestinian cause and national rights.
The PA urged Palestinians and Arab states to “stick together … to prevent … the deal of the century.”
PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh slammed the U.S.’s supposed “blatant bias towards Israel and the imbalance of power [created].”
“The region is now at a crossroads to decide the fate of principle issues that affect the interests of its peoples,” Abu Rudeineh said.
“The Palestinian leadership’s commitment to Palestinian and Arab options and national positions has given hope to the people who are continuing to suffer because of their failure to understand the truth about what is being planned against them,” he added.
“The prevalent chaos and tension in the region are a natural result of the failure to solve the Palestinian issue,” he said. “As long as Jerusalem is burning, so will the Arab world.”
He called on Palestinians to “restore the national spirit to face surprises, first and foremost the blatant US bias in favor of Israel.”
Palestinian sources said they believed the PA’s announcement referred to “unsuccessful attempts” by the US administration to “bypass” the PA leadership by establishing direct and indirect channels with some Palestinian figures and parties, including Hamas.
On Friday, members of Trump’s peace team, son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Mideast special negotiator Jason Greenblatt and U.S. envoy to Israel David Friedman, promised to ameliorate the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip in return for an end to Hamas “aggression.” But both the PA and Hamas rebuffed the offer, seeing it as part of the conspiracy.
Last month Kushner charged the PA with being “scared” of the peace plan because the Palestinians would likely warm to what it offers.
Greenblatt too slammed the Palestinians for their “hypocrisy” after a Palestinian Authority official rejected U.S. humanitarian relief to Gaza under the claim that the aid was a cynical ploy to separate the coastal enclave from the West Bank.
“Hamas & the PA, who have been fighting one another for over a decade, are each cynically claiming that the U.S. is trying to divide Gaza and the West Bank, instead of acknowledging that we are trying to help the Palestinians in Gaza,” Jason Greenblatt tweeted Thursday.
“What hypocrisy,” he added.
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