Imagine a situation in which a gang of thugs invaded a home
and took the family hostage. They made public demands to the head of the family
that managed to escape the house; and so they wait to hear from him.
The town sheriff was called but as he waits outside the
house with his men, the outlaws do not fear him because he is corrupt and no
one knows it better than they. But they also know that a good number of the
town folks are armed, and would not tolerate the sheriff engaging in a behavior
that might suggest he is helping the kidnappers. These guys also suspect that
the head of the family is out there calling on the town folks, asking them to
help him free the family.
As much as they want it, the bosses of the gang realize that
the current stalemate will not last much longer. They huddle in the War Room– –which
they modeled after Wolf Blitzer's Situation
Room–
Makovsky wrote an account of how the meeting of the bosses
might have gone. He put the composition under the title: “Abbas Still Faces
Unattractive Alternatives to Peacemaking” and had it published on January 16,
2018 on the website of the Washington Institute.
Clearly the focus of the gang was centered on what
alternatives the head of the Palestinian family, Mahmoud Abbas had, which
alternative he might choose and how he would proceed with it. Makovsky says the
gang saw 5 alternatives open to Abbas, none of which would be attractive to
him. This was fine with the outlaws, says the narrator, because it was like
manna from the sky falling in their lap. In fact, the best thing they hoped for
was to see the stalemate prolonged till the members of the family could not
take it anymore and asked for a quick resolution of the situation. The gang
viewed such development as adding to the bargaining chips in its hand.
The outlawed thugs saw five possible alternatives open to
Abbas; and David Makovsky saw five reasons why neither alternative would appeal
to Abbas. They are as follows:
First, because Abbas is committed to the two-state solution,
he does not get along with the Hamas Islamists who believe in armed struggle to
liberate all of Palestine .
In the eyes of the gang and those of Makovsky, the Hamas Islamists also refuse
to give up their weapons, and this makes it impossible for Abbas to work with
them toward a shared vision and a shared goal.
Second, not only does Abbas reject any move to start a round
of armed struggle in the occupied territory, he has repudiated a previous round
known as the intifada. In Abbas's view that operation was too costly in terms
of lives lost while accomplishing very little, if anything at all.
Third, everybody knows that Israel will never accept the one
state solution, as it would kill the Zionist dream of having a Jewish majority
state. Because this alternative would be out of the question to the outlaws and
to David Makovsky, Mahmoud Abbas too must have considered it out of the
question.
Fourth, Abbas will not resign because there is no one that
can fill his shoes at this time. That's fine as far as the gang of killers is
concerned because any change in Palestinian leadership would drastically alter
the prevailing predictability, and replace it with something that the Israelis
may not have the experience to handle. And so, it is better to live with the
devil you know than the one you don't.
Fifth, Abbas may not get all the help he'll need to advance
his cause from the Arab governments because of reasons that Makovsky cannot
explain. But he wants the readers to accept this proposition on faith anyway.