Iran stakes out position ahead of PA collapse
Iran's renewed interest in the occupied territories indicates that, unlike Israel, it is preparing for the possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
Five months ago this week, the “individual intifada” erupted. Since then, Israel has been staying the course, believing that it can contain the unrest as long as armed Palestinian organizations and armed members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) stay out of it.
But two separate statements this week — one from Beirut and the other from Jerusalem — cast doubt on the assumption that this policy will be able to prevent the unrest from escalating into widespread violence. Such a shift would require Israel to dramatically change its deployment of troops and resources.
During a Feb. 29 talk at Bar Ilan University, Minister of Immigrant Absorption Zeev Elkin, a member of the security Cabinet, offered his assessment that the Oslo Accord and the PA will fall apart as soon as President Mahmoud Abbas’ time in office is over.
“The breakdown of the PA is not a question of if, but when,” and Israel must prepare itself for that inevitability, Elkin told his audience, adding that he had given up trying to initiate serious talk about the problem behind closed doors.
