The last time I posted an article by Israeli (and other Jewish) authors that didn’t match up with the apparent party line, it hit a nerve that I didn’t predict. So just to say, I don’t have a “take” on this article either- other than I’m devastated Oct7 wasn’t avoided for all those poor Israelis and the subsequent Palestinians (ongoing).
Sharing as it makes a very interesting read and is also valuable to recognise nothing happens in a vacuum, despite the people incapable of thinking beyond a certain five-letter-word!
For people seeking informed Israeli perspectives that also take into account the reality of life for Palestinians, Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappe, Amira Hass are just some of the historians / journalists to seek out.
from the article—-
Menachem Klein is professor of Political Science at Bar Ilan University. He was an advisor to the Israeli delegation in negotiations with the PLO in 2000 and was one of the leaders of the Geneva Initiative
In February and March 2021, Fatah and Hamas, the two rival Palestinian political parties, reached an agreement to hold elections for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority, its Legislative Council, and Hamas' entry into the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The elections were planned to take place in accordance with the Oslo Accords, after which negotiations would continue with Israel toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The agreement included a commitment to uphold international law, establish a state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, recognize the PLO as the legitimate and exclusive umbrella framework, conduct a peaceful popular struggle, and transfer the separate government in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority.
President Mahmoud Abbas sent the agreement to the new Biden administration and European governments in the hope that they would support holding national elections with Hamas' participation, and would then pressure Israel to allow voting across the occupied territories, including in East Jerusalem.
As expected, Israel objected to including East Jerusalem in the elections, seeing it as undermining its claims to sovereignty over the occupied and annexed part of the city. Still, Hamas offered to hold the elections anyway, and accepted the restriction imposed by Israel. But Israel and the United States exerted heavy pressure on Abbas to cancel them all the same.
In the end, Abbas capitulated under severe pressure.
The "Unity Intifada" began a few days later, and with it, Hamas' Operation "Sword of Jerusalem" and Israel's "Operation Guardian of the Walls." According to reports in the New York Times and Washington Post, it was around that same time that Al-Aqsa Brigades, Hamas' military wing, began conceiving and planning what would become "Al-Aqsa Flood" - the murderous assault of October 7.
-rest of article at link below 👇
Menachem Klein is professor of Political Science at Bar Ilan University. He was an advisor to the Israeli delegation in negotiations with the PLO in 2000 and was one of the leaders of the Geneva Initiative. His new book, Arafat and Abbas: Portraits of Leadership in a State Postponed, was just published by Hurst London and Oxford University Press New York.
https://www.972mag.com/hamas-fatah-elections-israel-arrogance/