On March 19 at Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah, President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a tirade rife with frustration against the United States and Israel, including cursing at the US ambassador to Israel. Even before Abbas’ harangue, Israel knew he had decided to again impose punitive sanctions against Gaza and its 2 million Palestinian residents. Israeli intelligence and military analysts have been studying Abbas’ no-holds-barred behavior of recent weeks, as he slings arrows every which way seemingly without regard for their consequences.

“He is under tremendous pressure that makes him adopt irresponsible, verbal populism,” an Israeli defense official told Al-Monitor, speaking on the condition of anonymity and adding that Abbas' most recent utterances against senior US officials suggest extreme despair.

Abbas currently faces a dead end: No horizon for a diplomatic agreement with Israel, no prospects of engineering a UN vote on the establishment of a Palestinian state and dim hopes of implementing the reconciliation agreement with Hamas. All is lost. Adding Abbas’ deteriorating health to this makes for a bitter, angry man with nothing to lose.

On Jan. 14, Abbas delivered a diatribe against Donald Trump, cursing the US president with the Arabic epithet “May God demolish your house.” This week he called US Ambassador David Friedman a “son of a dog.” Abbas has never used such choice words in his 13 years at the helm of the Palestinian leadership, but his undiplomatic language does not appear to be a slip of the tongue. The cursing has been planned as a calculated bid to appease Palestinian public opinion, which, as he well knows, is fed up with his leadership and ineffectual policies.