When Palestinian police chief Col. Ahmad Abu al-Rub saw an Israeli military jeep with a flat tire, he stopped his car and got out to assist the IDF soldiers. Photos of the incident quickly appeared on social media, where outraged Palestinians blasted al-Rub and his family as someone who, as a member of the security forces, had gone too far in his collaboration with the occupier.
Unable to withstand the pressure, al-Rub's commanders informed him he was being suspended from his position. It seems that on the Palestinian side, security cooperation aimed at thwarting terrorist attacks against Israelis is much easier to swallow than a simple gesture on the side of the road.
That is the entire story in a nutshell. We have someone we can talk to in the West Bank. True, communication is not simple. They are angry at Israel and facing public criticism for their failures. But after years of weakness, it is now a professional security system, trained in large part by the Americans, that takes its orders from the central government in Ramallah. Israel does have someone we can communicate with on the Palestinian side.
In the Gaza Strip, a sort of non-government government that has partial control over armed groups in the territory is unwilling to recognize us, let alone make peace. Hamas does not even try to present conditions – tough as they may be – for negotiations with Israel. From its perspective, recognition of Israel would in effect spell the end of its existence.
It is not pragmatism that is leading Israel to play the dangerous game it is playing with Hamas, in the belief this is the least terrible option available, but rather the ideological perception it is better to "manage the conflict" with a side that makes no demands of us – other than we leave the country – than engage a side that seeks to live alongside us.
The Israeli government's willingness to reach understandings with Hamas, assist in the transfer of cash to employees of the Hamas government (while bypassing international legislation against the laundering of terrorist funds) and come to terms with "soft" terrorist activity and short-range missiles (see Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi's slip of the tongue about how a barrage of hundreds of rockets on southern Israel earlier this month was "minor" because none of the projectiles had reached Tel Aviv) make things all the more difficult on government officials in Ramallah.
Palestinian Authority officials see coordination with Israel as in the Palestinian national interest and believe the two-state solution would be beneficial to both sides involved. But on an almost daily basis, they are witness to how Hamas' violent conduct in Gaza is bearing fruit, while their own pragmatism makes them seen as collaborators who can be taken for granted.
The policy of separating Gaza and the West Bank, which is predicated on the hope that the Palestinians will ultimately be able to fulfill their goal of self-determination in a coastal enclave with an area of some 139 square miles and leave Israel with either direct or indirect control over the entire West Bank is, beyond being a bad move for Israel, just not going to happen. This approach is destined to meet the same end as the "Jordan is Palestine" strategy propagated for years by many on the Right. This approach was based on Jordan having a Palestinian-majority population, which one way or another would bring an end to Hashemite rule in the kingdom and establish a government that would meet the Palestinian demand for self-determination without requiring Israel to relinquish the West Bank.
A majority of right-wing representatives ultimately supported the peace agreement with Jordan in 1994, thereby letting go of the crazy idea that Jordan could be turned into a Palestinian state. Those who cling to the hope of satisfying the Palestinians' desire to establish a state by encouraging them to found their state in Gaza will also fall victim to this policy. The weakening of a Palestinian leadership that recognizes Israel will position us against those who do not recognize our right to exist, do not recognize our existence and see terrorism as the only way to achieve their hopeless objective.
