CITY OF GAZA: According to an Israeli study, support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad has increased while disapproval of the Palestinian Authority has significantly decreased throughout the West Bank.
The Israeli Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies produced the research, which encouraged the Israeli government to improve the security and economic conditions in the PA as being in “Israeli interest.”
A retired major general and two professors from the University of Wales in the UK made up the research team.
According to Mukhaimer Abu Sa’adaa, a political science lecturer at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, Israel’s strategy toward Hamas in Gaza and the PA in the West Bank is unclear.
“The current Israeli government or its predecessor has no interest in changing the existing reality between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and keeping the division is a clear Israeli goal, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about explicitly,” he said in an interview with Arab News.
According to the study, the absence of political options for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian problem and the existence of a right-wing Israeli administration were the main causes of the declining support for the PA under President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Israeli-Palestinian political process has come to a stalemate, it stated, “despite the hopes of many, almost three decades after the establishment of the PA and after a series of failed negotiations and policy initiatives.”
In light of the Israeli governments’ lack of a clear strategy for dealing with the Palestinian Authority, the study examined the factors that led to the PA’s decline and the growth of Hamas in popularity.
According to the report, the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Abu Mazen (Abbas), is in the worst state it has been in since the beginning of the second intifada and is headed toward collapse.
The economic crisis and declining revenue are the PA’s two biggest problems right now, and they have made it harder for them to maintain security in some areas of the West Bank.
Teachers and doctors have gone on multiple instances of strike as a result of the authority’s inability to pay full salaries to public employees in recent months.
At the beginning of last year, Israel intensified its military offensives in the northern West Bank, resulting in hundreds of casualties and injuries. The Palestinian Authority’s powers were severely damaged by the incursions into Palestinian cities.
According to the study, “Palestinian public opinion is at a low point regarding the legitimacy of the PA under the leadership of Abu Mazen.
The PA’s security apparatus, it was further stated, “does not control parts of the territory under their responsibility, as local organizations — alongside the known terrorist organizations — manage to expand their ranks and terrorist infrastructures for the purpose of launching terrorist attacks” against Israeli security forces and Israeli civilians in the West Bank and Israel.
The statement said that the president’s “ongoing opposition to terrorism and support for security cooperation is seen as irrelevant, not serving or promoting the Palestinian interest and therefore illegitimate.”
According to a different survey performed by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research last month, 63 percent of Palestinians feel that the PA burdens them, and 80 percent are unhappy with Abbas’ leadership.
According to the survey, 63 percent of Palestinians believed the PA’s continuance was in Israel’s best interests, while 50 percent believed its disintegration would benefit the Palestinian people.
A total of 71 percent of respondents said they were in favor of organizations like Lion’s Den existing independently of the PA, while 80 percent disagreed with the PA’s demand that they be disarmed.
According to the INSS study, the Palestinian leadership and Israel “do not agree on the meaning of a strong PA.”
The Palestinian leadership wants a strong PA, it said, “not only for improved performance but also for tightening political and civil control under conditions of lack of legitimacy. While the Israeli emphasis is on the functioning of the PA and its adherence to a political process based on direct negotiations with Israel.
“Hamas’ political power is not solely based on its ideology or its opponents’ disapproval of the PA. As a result of its military prowess, Hamas has complete control over the Gaza Strip, and its infrastructure of cooperation with Iran and Hezbollah enables it to advance its military buildup in the West Bank, launch and run terrorist infrastructures, undermine security reality, and delegitimize the PA.