Pity the Palestinians for their only hope of gaining an independent and fair state based on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations has been crushed. The peace process is dead if we are to go by the leak of confidential documents related to the conflict obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera.
These documents have provided a vivid exposure of the Palestinian National Authority's leadership style and how disconnected they are from their own people as well as the wider Arab and Muslim audiences.
And after all the unprecedented and unwarranted concessions from the Palestinian side, we see Israel is not content with what amounts to land robbery and totalitarian control. It actually wants more. To paraphrase then-foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Palestinians would have to choose not to have a choice if they want to progress with peace talks.
But we've known all along that Israel can and will do what it wants as long as its patron the US provides blind support. The documents provide us with the disturbing image that the PNA is spineless in the face of a hawkish Israel and willing to bend over backwards in order to please its occupiers.
In this regard, the Palestinian negotiating team over the last decade worked on behalf of the Israelis as well as Palestinians. How could chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat tell the Israelis that the Palestinians are ready to concede "the biggest Yerushalayim in Jewish history"?
It's puzzling to think that the PNA at this stage doesn't see that appeasing Israel is getting them nowhere. The question must be asked: who gave them the right to negotiate on behalf of Palestinians specifically and Arabs in general when it comes to the fate of occupied Jerusalem? They owe the Palestinian people an immediate explanation.
It is clear that the existing PNA setup has utterly failed and can no longer continue. Moreover, the international community must stand up to Israeli cruelty. In fact, this is the time to consider another peace broker as the US has shown itself irresponsible, pressing the Palestinians on the one hand, and approving Israeli behaviour on the other.
