Will Abbas be forced to choose war against Israel?

Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion once told Shimon Peres that when it comes to war and peace, a leader has to decide either to make peace and pay the price or make war and pay its price. The price of peace is lower. In the long run, there is no middle ground. Gradually, this is the conclusion that the Palestinian leadership is coming to today.

A senior PLO security official close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian president prefers, for the time being, to hold the middle ground — no peace, no war. But he is beginning to comprehend that sooner rather than later he will have to choose; otherwise, others will decide for him.

The official said that according to his sources in Hamas, several meetings took place in recent weeks between Hamas and Hezbollah. The meetings were designed to plan a vast campaign against Israel, inspired by Iran. The way the PLO official sees it, Iran aspires to stir turmoil in the region as a response to what it perceives as US provocation against the nuclear deal, and to the coalition established by President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud with Egypt, Jordan and other Arab and Muslim countries.

The PLO official does not rule out a combined attack by Hezbollah against Israel from both Lebanon and Syria, either by the end of 2017 or by the beginning of 2018. Asked what would be the position of the Fatah leadership in this case, he answered categorically, “We are not interested in such a development; Abbas is a man of peace. But under such circumstances and given the total diplomatic stalemate, we would join the battle in a fight for Palestinian independence and East Jerusalem as our capital.” Al-Aqsa and the Israeli occupation would be a joint motto of such a violent deterioration.