The resignation of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will bring to an end another chance for peace. The futile attack and counterattack between the Israeli military machine and the resistance fighters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad will resume. Ahead lies an intensification of a bloody struggle, in which the only winners are the gravediggers.
Mahmoud Abbas took on an unenviable task when he accepted the premiership 103 days ago. He began with friends he would rather not have had and without the friendship of those he really needed at his side. Washington backed Abbas’ premiership because it, along with the Israeli government, wished to sideline Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians’ democratically elected president. Arafat for his part made little secret of his view that Abbas should be subject to his leadership.
Yet when Abbas announced a unilateral end to the intifada, there was a moment when he might have been able to add some substance to his position. That he failed, and that he never recovered from that failure, was due as much to Washington and the Israeli government as it was to the grudging support he was given by Arafat and Palestinian hard-liners.
The Israelis never agreed to reciprocate the truce, but managed the gesture of releasing some prisoners. That, apparently, at this crucial moment was the best that Washington could wring by way of concession from an Israeli government with no real interest in advancing the peace process. This failure of the Israelis to demonstrate a commitment to peace on their side left the militant Palestinians exposed like a raw nerve. Public support for the intifada had not gone away, but many ordinary Palestinians, although still deeply pessimistic, were prepared to give a chance to this narrow chink of hope for peace.
The Abbas premiership hung like an autumn leaf waiting for the first strong wind of trouble to fall. That blast came with the new Hamas attacks, which included renewed suicide bombings. The Israelis, who were waiting for this moment, retaliated with their customary ruthlessness. Washington demanded that Abbas take action against the militants. The premier however had not been granted by Arafat full control of the Palestinian security forces. He was powerless to comply. But even had he been able to deploy security units to detain any militants, it is likely they would have faced the overwhelming opposition of ordinary Palestinians, their faint hopes of peace once again shattered.
It has only taken just over 100 days to destroy the Mahmoud Abbas premiership and with it, it seems, the latest chance for peace. How many days, and how many lives, must now be wasted before another such opportunity occurs?
