They. Just. Don't. Get. It.

This image illustrates one of the most significant problems facing the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad. This morning, a settler guard opened fired on Palestinians in Jerusalem and reports indicated that two Palestinians are dead and Israeli police have stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque. Below the image of Palestinians in Jerusalem on Haaretz' home page is a story about Abbas and that he hinted he'd continue with talks if a settlement moratorium isn't extended. For many Palestinians, this is not merely a juxtaposition which characterizes the front of Haaretz' website today, but rather one that characterizes their entire political situation at the moment.

As settler violence is on the rise (we just did an extensive presentation on this last week) and two Palestinians are killed in Jerusalem, their leaders seem to be backing away from yet another stance of principle on settlements.

But instead of recognizing the dangerous problems of perception and legitimacy, it seems PA leaders are acting to exacerbate these problems. Yesterday, Ramallah-based PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spoke at an event organized by the Israel Project. Yes, you read that correctly, The. Israel. Project. Here is the Israel Project's post-meeting release. The Israel Project, for those unaware, is dedicated to propaganda dissemination for the betterment of Israel's image. In short, it is an Israeli PR firm.

You may recall that last year a manual distributed by the Israel Project, which was marked "not for distribution", was leaked to Newsweek. This, perhaps, gave us the best insight into what the Israel Project is really all about. With an Israeli flag and pictures of children playing on the cover, the "The Israel Project's Global Language Dictionary" is just what you think it is. The propaganda manual teaches Israel supporters how to make arguments in favor of the settlements, against the right to return, in support of Israel's actions during the Gaza war and arms them with language to defend Israel's most indefensible actions.

Here is what they call the "best settlement argument":

If we are to have real peace, then Israelis and Palestinians will have to live side by side. The idea that anywhere that you have Palestinians there can't be any Jews, that some areas have to be Jew-free, is a racist idea. We don't say that we have to cleanse out Arabs from Israel. They are citizen of Israel. They enjoy equal rights. We cannot see why it is that peace requires that any Palestinian area would require a kind of ethnic cleansing to remove all Jews. We don't accept it. Cleansing by either side against either side is unacceptable.

Here is the argument they recommend for answering criticism about Gaza civilian deaths (sound familiar?):

What should Israel do? Imagine, if thousands of rockets were fired into your community every day and every night? What would your country do? What would you want them to do? Don’t we have a duty to protect our citizens? Israel tried very hard to avoid civilians in their actions in Gaza, but unfortunately, Hamas and other terrorists place guns, rocket launchers and weapons smuggling tunnels in the heart of their civilian population. Israel must defend its citizens, why does Hamas intentionally place Palestinians in the line of fire?

So why are the President and Prime Minister of the Ramallah-based PA flocking to meet with Jewish groups that are making every effort to entrench the occupation when they have a tremendous credibility problem at home with the people they claim to represent?

Well there are three possible answers as I see it either A) They don't care about domestic legitimacy and have, like other Arab leaders, bet all-in on Western financial and military support as the key to regime survival B) Are being totally mislead by their PR consultants in the US or in Ramallah who think its a good idea for them to continue to foolishly destroy what little legitimacy they have left or C) all of the above.

I went into some of the implications of diminished domestic legitimacy on the prospects for a successful peace process here. But more importantly here is the cold, hard undeniable reality that this is all leading to. A public opinion poll of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza this summer asked this question:

Last month Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks started with the mediation of Senator George Mitchel.[sic] PA president and chairman of the PLO leads the Palestinian team. If an agreement is reached in these negotiations, in your view, would such an agreement be legitimate?

The results? A majority, 54% say no and only 35% say yes (the remainder is DK/NA).

As of this writing, cars and tires are ablaze in Silwan and Israeli police are cracking down on post-funeral protests and storming the religious sites. Fayyad's speaking engagement, which will surely be interpreted as proverbial fiddling for pro-settlement groups in the US as Jerusalem burns, is not likely to advance the cause of peace in any way.

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