5. PALESTINIAN PARALYSIS

This chapter was updated in September 2016.

  1.     See, for example, Barak Ravid, “Fayyad’s Resignation: The Beginning of the End of the PA?,” Haaretz, April 14, 2013.

  2.     For Fayyad’s 2.4 percent of the vote in 2006, see “The Final Results for the Electoral Lists,” Palestinian Central Election Commission, accessed June 7, 2016, http://web.archive.org/web/20081029054121/http://www.elections.ps/pdf/Final_Results_PLC_Summary_Lists_Seats_2_En.pdf. For more on Fayyad, see chapter 4. For Fayyad’s quotes (“open-ended commitment” and “our problem much more” and “better relationship with the Central Bank of Israel”), see “PM Fayyad and PMA Governor al-Wazir Discuss Proposed Designations and Palestinian Banking Sector with Treasury DAS Glaser,” US Department of State cable, published by Wikileaks.org, August 7, 2008, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08JERUSALEM1450_a.html; “Fayyad Asks U/S Levey for Help with Qatar and Trade-based Money Laundering,” US Department of State cable, published by Wikileaks.org, August 17, 2007, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07JERUSALEM1719_a.html.

  3.     For Israeli sanctions and Fatah-fueled demonstrations against Fayyad, see Jim Zanotti, “U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians,” Congressional Research Service, March 18, 2016, p. 2; International Crisis Group, “Buying Time? Money, Guns and Politics in the West Bank,” Middle East Report, no. 142, May 29, 2013, p. 13. On the Bush administration’s efforts to create the new position of prime minister in order to weaken Arafat and empower Abbas, see Elliott Abrams, Tested By Zion (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

  4.     As discussed later in this chapter, the reference to “sustained public talks” is as opposed to the abortive “exploratory” talks held in Jordan for several weeks in early 2012 and the back-channel talks that envoys of Abbas and Netanyahu pursued for several years until December 2013.

  5.     On the exploratory talks, see “PLO Cabinet to Meet Monday over Failed Talks,” Ma’an News Agency, January 28, 2012.

  6.     For Israel’s threat to annul Oslo, see Barak Ravid, “Israel: We Will Annul Oslo Accords if Palestinians Seek Upgraded UN Status,” Haaretz, November 14, 2012. For Palestine’s upgrade at the UN, see Ethan Bronner and Christine Hauser, “U.N. Assembly, in Blow to U.S., Elevates Status of Palestine,” The New York Times, November 29, 2012. For use of the phrase “doomsday weapon” by Netanyahu’s advisers and “nuclear option” by Israeli journalists, see Ariel Kahana, “The Application to the Hague Will Become the Chairman’s Job Accident,” Makor Rishon [Hebrew], January 10, 2015; Barak Ravid, “Israel’s Troubles Are Just Beginning: Enter the Palestinian ‘Nuclear Option,’” Haaretz, January 1, 2015. For Palestinians joining the International Criminal Court, see Diaa Hadid and Marlise Simons, “Palestinians Join International Criminal Court, but Tread Cautiously at First,” The New York Times, April 1, 2015.