Articles - Others - Date: 2022-04-02
Source: Erem News

By: Oraib Al Rantawi

Tahdi'a has been the key word behind all the political and diplomatic activity related to and surrounding the Palestinian issue for a year or a little longer now, especially during the past few weeks.This, along with 'confidence-building measures', a term taken from the 'economic peace' basket based on the 'economics for security' theory, now constitute the path that the mediators are following and centering their valiant efforts and mediations on.

 

From the tripartite Sharm el-Sheikh summit, to the four-way 'Aqaba meeting, to the six-way Negev forum and the bilateral Ramallah meeting, as well as Blinken's tour in the region and the Israeli pilgrimages to 'Amman (Lapid, Gantz, Bar-Lev and Herzog), the only thing on the agenda has been to 'facilitate the passage' of Ramadan, defuse a potential explosion, and stave off the worst before it occurs, although the evidence and harbingers do not augur much success and the situation in Jerusalem, al-Aqsa, and Palestine resembles a boiling cauldron.

 

The parties involved in this activity have a real interest in achieving tahdi'a. Washington does not want anything to distract it from the focus of its attention: Ukraine and its implications. Israel does not want disturbance to its program of Israelization, Judaization, and creeping annexation of Palestinian territory and rights. The Arab states, which have not yet recovered from the covid-19 pandemic's aftermath and repercussions, are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Vienna and Ukraine, and the last thing they want is to have to turn their attention to other issues. If a tahdi'a is achieved, it will bring respite and comfort to all of them.But the urgent question arises: Is tahdi'a in Palestine's interest? And by Palestine, we mean the Palestinian people and their national cause, and not remotely the interest of the PA and its presidency or Hamas and its de facto government in the Gaza Strip.

 

There is no doubt that tahdi'a is in the PA's interest, because if an explosion occurs and it ends up being major, it would bring with it risks of the PA's eroding and losing the weak grip with which it barely keeps hold of the Oslo-designated Area A of the West Bank. Hamas, which is suffocating in the besieged Gaza Strip (which is suffocating along with it), has no greater concern than to maintain its authority. If it is considering mounting a confrontation and escalation, it would certainly prefer for the lines and engagement and confrontation to circumscribe the Jerusalem and the West Bank, far away from the depleted Strip.

 

Tahdi'a is a good option for the PA, and it is good for Hamas in the event that it does not find itself compelled to resort to another Operation Sword of Jerusalem.But again, is tahdi'a a good option for the Palestinian people, rights, and national cause?

 

If tahdi'a is not connected to the wholesale cessation of settlement encroachment in the West Bank and the Israelization and Judaization projects in Jerusalem, an end to extrajudicial executions, a stop to the abuse and arrest campaigns, evictions, demolitions of Palestinian homes, and uprooting of their trees, there will be woeful consequences for the people and the cause alike.If tahdi'a and the accompanying 'confidence-building measures' are not contingent on opening prospects for a fruitful political process that transcends the 'economics for security' theory, its only purpose is to call on the Palestinians to adapt to the outcomes of the Israeli solution to the Palestinian issue, for which the 'deal of the century' is the highest bar rather than a starting point to build off from.

 

Palestinian confrontation against the occupation's violations and encroachments in al-Aqsa, Jerusalem and the entire occupied homeland is what prompted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit the region twice. The first time was a year ago, so as to contain the aftermath and repercussions of Operation Sword of Jerusalem, while the second time was a few days ago, to prevent the same scenario from recurring.

 

Confrontation is the way for the Palestinians to put their cause back on the agenda of the region and the international community, whereas tahdi'a in the manner that is being discussed is the shortest way to being abandoned and forgotten.Tahdi'a is a 'comfortable' option in the short term and a costly one in the medium and long term, whereas confrontation is a costly option in the shorter term, and a profitable one in the longer term.Is it possible to conceive of tahdi'a outside the box of mediation and benign efforts?