PLO Breaks Security Pacts With Israel

After monopolizing the political agenda with his controversial speech to the US Congress, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that security in Israel is the centerpiece of his campaign.

The latest polls seem to show that Netanyahu’s speech has been modestly effective in gaining him more support. The Likud leader assigned only had a slight improvement after his speech at the Capitol.

However, there is topic of which almost no one in Israel, including Netanyahu is talking about. The Palestinian issue.

Israel’s relation with the Palestinians is as old as its history. Since it was established as the “birth of the Jewish state” in 1948, no one seems to want to solve the conflict between the Israeli regime and the right it denies to Palestinians to live in peace. In this election cycle, politicians in Israel are more worried about the “Iranian threat” and domestic problems.

Not long after Netanyahu heard the last cheers in Washington, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and in a closed session celebrated on Thursday in Ramallah, both parts agreed to cut ties with Israel since the Oslo Accords of 1993.

“We are forced to reset the security cooperation with Israel,” admitted Kamal al Sheik, board member of Fatah, the party of Abbas.

Contacts between Palestinian security services and Israelis, that have helped prevent attacks and defuse tension, will be broken as long as Netanyahu is in power, said a source of the PLO in Ramallah, “but they will be reconsidered after the elections “.

The president of the Palestinian Authority accused Israel on Wednesday of blackmailing his government since December to suspend the transfer of taxes it collects on its behalf by an amount that has now reached $450 million.

The transfer of tax accounts for two-thirds of budget revenues, which means that 140,000 Palestinian officials have had their salaries discounted by 40%.

“The Palestinian Authority has been reluctant to cut the last ties with Israel, but needs to make a gesture of firmness to the population affected by the pay cut,” argued Said Zidani, a University professor and political analyst.

The Executive led by Netanyahu took the step of blocking the funds immediately after the Palestinian government requested his accession to the treaty governing the International Criminal Court (ICC), which will take effect next April 1.

“We will not formally file any lawsuit against Israel,” revealed a source in the PLO, “but we expect that the court acts on its own, after an investigation carried out with respect to the conflict in Gaza last summer.”

Ramallah analysts understand that although Israel has not signed the Rome Statute of 1998, establishing the ICC, the International Criminal Justice can examine events in the Palestinian territory, including Gaza.

The Arabs with Israeli citizenship represent 20% of the population and around 15% of voters in Israel. The list of political groups that oppose Likud is composed of three Arab parties and one Arab-Israeli group.

“Polls now assign a range of 10 to 15 seats, depending on the participation of Arab voters at the polls,” explains Professor Zidani. “It seems clear that it will be almost impossible to block Netanyahu’s reelection for a third consecutive term without the Arab group of Knesset”.

“The Arab parties have had no choice but to join forces to survive,” says Gideon Raat, election analyst and professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University. “The outgoing center-right government has forced them to do that to raise the minimum bar which allows access to parliament, between 2% to 3.25% of the vote,” he adds.

Luis R. Miranda is an award-winning journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief at The Real Agenda. His career spans over 18 years and almost every form of news media. His articles include subjects such as environmentalism, Agenda 21, climate change, geopolitics, globalisation, health, vaccines, food safety, corporate control of governments, immigration and banking cartels, among others. Luis has worked as a news reporter, on-air personality for Live and Live-to-tape news programs. He has also worked as a script writer, producer and co-producer on broadcast news. Read more about Luis.