Israel/Palestine

So why did Abbas laugh? And why did he reject out of hand a diplomatic process with Israel, a moment after he told the vice president that a political solution would have prevented the current violent uprising? The answer is that Abbas simply does not trust Netanyahu’s intentions.

Abbas' diplomatic experience with Netanyahu, including during the Kerry-driven negotiations, left him with the impression — one shared by all the senior Palestinian leadership — that the Israeli prime minister isn’t negotiating in order to reach a diplomatic agreement, but to stonewall. He believes that Netanyahu wants to appear in the international arena as someone intending to move toward a diplomatic compromise that would have succeeded if Abbas hadn’t caused it to fail. “You can ask Tzipi Livni how serious we were, and how Netanyahu kept her on a tight leash,” Abbas told Biden, according to the Palestinian source.

In the past, Abbas had hinted that he doesn’t see the right of return as a make-or-break issue. In an interview on Israeli Channel 2 in November 2012, he declared that even though he is a refugee from Safed, in northern Israel, he doesn’t think of returning there. “Palestine now for me is the ’67 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said in the interview. "I am a refugee, but I am living in Ramallah. … I believe that [the] West Bank and Gaza is Palestine … and the other parts [are] Israel.”

Abbas' assent to dictates from Netanyahu, who had utterly humiliated the Palestinian chairman in the past, would now be seen by Palestinians, including senior members of his movement, as capitulation to the Israelis. In this situation, no Israeli compromise could make up for that.

Abbas' smile at Biden’s proposal meant, "Now you remember, when the United States is about to have an election?" What chance is there that a diplomatic initiative could be concluded in just a few months? After all, the previous round of talks, which lasted more than a year, didn’t even get to the essential issues.

It seems that Abbas' term will end not over a democratic process failing to take place in the Palestinian Authority, but because of the vehemence of opposition to his rule among the general Palestinian populace.

From their standpoint, the Palestinians don’t have high hopes for the US elections. In their opinion, neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton nor even Bernie Sanders will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and force Israel to end the occupation. The only path for the Palestinians, they believe, is to take action themselves in pursuing recognition by the United Nations with European support and hope for a lot of luck.