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Are Trump, Netanyahu planning to 'buy off' the Palestinians?

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are responsible for the dire economic straits of the Palestinian Authority, yet they think that an economic package for the Palestinians will achieve two goals: prevent the PA from collapse and get the PA to accept their terms.
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they pose on the West Wing colonnade in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis - RC1AE2447D80

After many years of crying wolf — so much so that it has become a ritual — the wolf may, indeed, arrive. Warnings of the imminent collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA) go back to the beginning of the PA’s existence in 1993. The threats have gone up and down over the years, but they have always emerged as futile. Every time Israel freezes the PA’s monies, or fines the PA in a one-sided gesture, or tries to economically strangle the PA, the senior PA members emphatically announce that they will simply return the keys and close down the business. In the past, this was avoided at the very last minute. In recent years, even the natural tension that once accompanied these crises has disappeared. No one really took the threats of the elderly PA leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, seriously. But now, for the first time, the threats seem genuine.

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