Ramallah: The Palestinian status quo will remain well into the year 2015, political commentators have predicted, with Mahmoud Abbas remaining at the helm of the Palestinian Naitonal Authority which is not expected to collapse.
Palestinians will continue to suffer but are not expected to collectively rebel against Israeli discriminatory policies, because analysts say they have severely limited options.
“The future of the PNA and Mahmoud Abbas is in American and Israeli hands, who see the PNA as a vital tool in achieving their security objectives,” Palestinian political analyst Abdul Sattar Qassem, told Gulf News.
“The PNA has successfully eradicated nationalism and patriotism from the hearts and minds of Palestinians in the West Bank,” he added, pointing out the limited reaction of West Bankers to Israeli’s brutal offensive in Gaza, its incursions in Al Haram Al Sharif and its colonial activity in occupied east Jerusalem.
Israel has successfully created a financial burden so great that Palestinians are focusing on their individual financial burdens rather than national interests, he explained.
The situation is so bleak, Qassem added, that Palestinians prefer Israeli occupation in the West Bank rather than the PNA to be in control.
“Everyone thinks that the blood of martyrs has been wasted and no one wants to take any more risks,” he said.
“Palestinains view armed resistence in the West Bank as no longer advantageous,” political analyst Ghassan Al Khatib told Gulf News.
He says that the life of an ordinary Palestinian is no longer connected in any way to the national struggle or even internal struggles between Fatah and Hamas.
Despite the huge injustices being committed daily by Israeli occupation forces, the public are overwhelmingly rolling with the punches.
Al Khatib predicts a continuation of such apathy in 2015, pointing out the fact that the PNA has endured one of the most turbulent years since previous intifadas.
In order to secure stability and calm in the West Bank, the Palestinian security apparatus had received strict instructions from the Palestinian president to carry out Israeli objectives which is to chase Hamas followers and supporters of former Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan.
“New missions have been added to our duties to secure calm and stability in the West Bank and we have no other choice but to do the mission well and succeed,” said a senior security official who did not want to be mentioned due to the sensitivity of the issue.
