Abbas faces mounting pressure as Netanyahu coalition deepens Palestinian divide

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, faces an increasingly precarious political position as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government weaponises diplomatic overtures for domestic political gain. Netanyahu, who famously shook hands with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat decades ago, now uses Abbas’s willingness to engage with Israel as a tool to paint the Palestinian leader as a collaborator in the eyes of his own people.

Within Israeli right-wing circles, any gesture of Palestinian-Israeli cooperation is being reframed as a form of contamination of nationalist ideals. For Abbas, this creates an impossible dilemma: engagement with Israel is portrayed as a betrayal of Palestinian interests, whilst isolation leaves the Palestinian Authority further marginalised and powerless in negotiations.

The timing is particularly damaging for Abbas. In an era of heightened tensions and competing claims of loyalty to Palestinian causes, any appearance of cooperation with the Israeli government is seized upon by political opponents as evidence of capitulation. The characterisation of such diplomatic contact as a sin beyond redemption reflects the deep polarisation within Palestinian politics and the way Abbas’s authority continues to erode amongst his own population.

For the Palestinian leader, these are precarious times indeed. Caught between international expectations of negotiation and domestic political pressures that label any such engagement as treachery, Abbas finds himself increasingly isolated and vulnerable to challenges from rival factions.

Source: Ynet — Original article in Hebrew.