For several days now, the Trump administration has been imposing all sorts of budget cuts on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, even canceling the funding of activities intended to bring young Palestinians and Israelis together. Nevertheless, with just a few days until he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly meeting, it looks like Abbas is convinced that he is on the right path and that he is comfortable with it. Abbas is proud of his involvement in the Oslo Accord. He believes that this agreement was of enormous importance, and that it altered the situation throughout the region. He said that if there ever comes a time, when the Palestinians conclude that they can no longer continue with their commitments, the implications will be dire. And now, as then, Abbas cannot understand what Palestinians and Israelis with no interest in peace really hope to achieve. What is their alternative? The total annihilation of the other? Of themselves?

Abbas has a hard time understanding the Israeli government’s policy toward the Gaza Strip. It was once agreed that the Palestinians could establish a port along the Gaza coast, as well as an airport. Now there is talk of a port in Cyprus and an airport in Eilat, Israel. Does anyone seriously think that this is a solution to the problems of Gaza? Why are Israeli representatives now pressuring Abbas to pay the salaries of bureaucrats in Gaza, and why are they willing to forego the principle of a single Palestinian armed force and one set of laws for all Palestinians? What’s happening with you, Abbas asks? Historically, that was what you always demanded of us, wasn’t it?

The Palestinian president believes in nonviolent resistance. It is his preferred path, and he advocated for it despite the opposition of the first Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat. Abbas opposes the terrorism of knife attacks. Why are the people sending children out to risk their lives in knife attacks unwilling to send their own children out to do the same, he asks. This has led to a discussion of his support for a demilitarized Palestinian state. Abbas does not consider this a compromise, but rather a matter of principle. The last thing that a future Palestinian state will need is tanks and fighter jets. Abbas would rather invest in classrooms and hospitals.

It is important for Abbas to reminisce about his childhood as a Palestinian boy growing up right next to the Jewish neighborhood of Safed in the early 1940s. His father’s business partner was a Jew, and the two men were close friends. As a young boy, he participated in the family weddings of his father’s partner as well as in the celebrations of their Jewish employees. As far as Abbas is concerned, the trauma of 1948, may have forced his family to various places across the Middle East, but it never erased his fond memories of neighborly relations and partnerships. Maybe that's why he believes in peace. He thinks that there is no reason why what happened less than eight decades ago could not happen again in the future. Why can’t Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, live alongside each other as friends and in peace?