For those who wondered if the establishment of a new government would bring about any change in Israel's policy towards the Palestinian Authority, a clear answer soon came - no and no.
The new government has chosen to continue walking on the same familiar and well-known path in which Israeli-Palestinian relations have been conducted for the past decades, and in fact since the collapse of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority has become a partner in peacemaking and a maintenance contractor, which helps us, in a unique partnership of interests, to preserve the status quo in Judea and Samaria.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, like a child who discovered a new toy and cannot let go of it, hastened to sign an order to cut a few million of the billions that Israel transfers to the PA.
Together with his colleagues in the government, he also deprived the Palestinian Foreign Minister, as punishment for the political campaign the PA is conducting against us, of his AHM certificate, thus condemning him to a long line at the border crossing. But don't worry - as happened in the past, the certificate will soon be returned to its owner, even if In hiding and out of sight.
Even Smotrich, the right-wing figure in the government, suddenly sounded like Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Oslo agreement, when he stated that it would be possible to cooperate with the Authority if it followed the Oslo agreements.
Suddenly, in his eyes, the Oslo agreement became a compass according to which our policy should be steered.
But Smotrich is not the issue - after all, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant let him talk tall, but in practice they made sure that the decisions that would be made against the PA would be devoid of any practical meaning on the ground. In any case, with all due respect to the ministers and the government, the right of the last word is reserved as always to the system Security. Senior officials were quick to warn last week of the PA's collapse and called for help to hold on, because if it collapses, chaos will prevail and terrorism will increase. The Palestinian Authority can, therefore, be calm.
It must be admitted that the preservation of the status quo in Judea and Samaria, including the continued existence of the Palestinian Authority, has logic and even widespread support within the political system, the security system, and among the Palestinians.
There are those in the government who believe that maintaining the status quo will make it possible - slowly but surely, dunam by dunam and house by house - to establish the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, and make a process of disengagement or separation impossible.
All this - without dramatic announcements that would arouse the Americans' anger.
They understand very well what is happening on the ground, but prefer to put up with the situation with a wink of an eye and not to confront Israel, or support it and thus arouse the anger of the Arabs.
The security establishment believes that the preservation of the status quo, as well as the existence of the PA, will ensure that one day it will be possible to resume a political process - it is not clear with whom and for what - but a political process is seen by many in the security establishment as a magic word that can guarantee a better future, peace and tranquility .
And finally, the Palestinians are not interested in change either, because it might lead to a political move like the Trump plan, which offered them a state - but required them to give up their dreams and fantasies.
And so, in the dilemma between a truncated state and a possible takeover of the territory by Hamas, the Palestinian officials, who suckle the PA, prefer to stick to the status quo, hoping that one day the miracle they have been waiting for for 100 years will happen.
But the status quo also has its drawbacks.
It is more and more difficult to maintain, the cost of its maintenance is constantly increasing, and finally - it must strengthen not only the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, but also the Palestinian identity and the ethos of the struggle promoted by the Palestinian Authority, and make it harder for the Palestinians in the future to come down from this tall tree they climbed.
So what does the State of Israel actually want?
To distinguish this or that minister, or from the senior members of the defense establishment - there is still no answer to that.
And unlike the past, when we used to take our fate in our hands, today we let fate determine our future.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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