How long can Abbas hold firm on security coordination with Israel?
Israel's security establishment is well aware of the pressure being exerted on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt security coordination with Israel, which is why Israel must exert intense efforts to assist him.
Despite the outrage among the Palestinian leadership over the Trump peace plan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rush to annex parts of the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has thus far withstood the pressure on him from all directions and does not appear eager to cancel security coordination with Israel. The current assessment is that as long as there are no wide-scale or violent clashes between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Palestinians, and not many casualties resulting from impending demonstrations, he will continue to be able to withstand the pressure. For that to happen, however, Israel must exert intense efforts to assist him.
There is a great paradox when it comes to Israel’s attitude toward Abbas and the Palestinian Authority on all matters pertaining to security coordination and the official attitude toward the “refusenik from the Mukataa,” as Abbas some Israeli sources call him. One can also not overstate the sense of loathing for Abbas among the leaders of the Israeli right, starting with Netanyahu and including former Foreign Minister and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman as well as Naftali Bennett, the current defense minister. Bennett's is an interesting story.
