Reports suggesting the International Criminal Court could potentially prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin and his close advisers for crimes against humanity over the Ukraine invasion have led the Palestinian Authority to again try its luck and convince The Hague that Israel's crimes just as not serious.

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For Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, what is happening in Ukraine and Israel's response to acts of terror in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are one and the same.

This tactic is hardly new. Time and again, the PA tries to rein in Israel when it finds it has to launch a military operation against terrorist elements. All recent military campaigns in the Gaza Strip have seen UN officials and international legal bodies accuse Israel of using excessive force. but when asked to present examples, they explained that Israel had gone too far with razing buildings and targeted assassinations.

The Jewish state's need to generate deterrence has never been mentioned. For them, proportionality means that if a missile is fired at you, fire one missile back, as firing two missiles constitutes "excessive use of force."

The latest appeal to the ICC proves that it rumors of "great hostility" between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have been greatly exaggerated. It is hard not to get the impression that they are working together on the Israeli issue and are, in fact, well-coordinated: Hamas is provoking Israel into operating in Gaza and the West Bank, and the PA continues to ram Israel on the international stage and tries to harm it in any way possible.

Moreover, Abbas and his ministers are now trying to have the ICC reckon with Israel for its "past crimes" with the clear aim of having this anachronistic and one-sided institution curb Israel's operational leeway in the future.

Former Chief ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda left office having been unable to indict Israel – she had no evidence to support the Palestinians' false allegations and most likely thought twice about the issue.

On his first day on the job, her successor, Karim Khan, was approached by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki with a demand that the ICC charge Israel with committing crimes against humanity.

Israel in the past warned the Palestinians that their appeals to The Hague under false pretense could undermine any positive development between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Abbas and his ilk have been told in no uncertain terms that attempts to discredit Israel in the international arena were a red line and that Israel will not hesitate to exact a price from the PA of it.

The leverage that Israel has over the PA is wide-ranging and effective, and it has been used in the past. It is time to use it again.

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When Fatah Day is celebrated on Jan. 1, it will be marked with a procession of several hundred mercenaries at the Muqata in Ramallah. However, by the time the procession reaches the end of the street, it will learn that the next generation is no longer there. Nor is the Arab world.

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 In the past, the Palestinian issue was of greater concern to certain Arab sectors than their own country's domestic affairs. This is the reason the Palestinian umbrella organization known as the Palestine Liberation Organization was the recipient of a great deal of money from individual donors, international organizations, and both Arab and non-Arab states. This financial support was accompanied by such great moral support that in some Arab states, cries of "We are all Palestine" were commonplace.

No more. The lack of motivation among Palestinian youths to launch a third Intifada is just one symptom of this phenomenon. Saudi, Moroccan, Emirati, and even Palestinian yuppies have had enough of the empty "Palestine First" slogan. In recent years, it has become evident that they have chosen to adhere to a new outlook, to the regret of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO, Fatah, and Hamas. This outlook is one of contempt for the Palestinian leadership, which is perceived as corrupt, anemic, and one whose time is up.

What brought about this change? The atrocities perpetrated by Arab rulers in Arab states led these people to rethink their perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For decades, they were educated to hate "child-killing" Israel. From watching what transpired in Iraq and Syria, they realized this was incitement, and there was no truth behind the propaganda. They discovered Israel was entirely different from their misconceptions.

The Arab Spring was also exposed as a lie. The younger generation had great hopes that the revolutions would remove Arab tyrants from their seats of power and corrupt and immoral regimes would collapse with a loud thump. Yet they watched with obvious discomfort and disappointment as they learned that what is past is prologue. They were also disappointed by the Palestinians who encouraged revolutions in their countries in the Arab Gulf, Lebanon, and North Africa not to rectify a wrong but purely for anarchy's sake. Those harmed by the Palestinians began to look differently at the Zionist state. To some, Israel became an ally.

One issue that has been raised in the past but has been met with a whimper and yet continues to concern the world's Arabs is the refugee camps. After over 70 years of suffering, insult, and misery, many in the Arab world, whether they be street merchants or the CEOs of high-tech firms, ask: Will we ever see the end of these camps? The PLO heads, who declared the need for the camps' "appearance" as representations of the Palestinian tragedy forgot that these are not merely display windows but miles of poverty, slime, and sewage. They identified with the residents of these camps only by throwing them a few empty words. They acquired luxurious homes for themselves, sent their children to prestigious schools, and kept funds to rehabilitate the camps to themselves. And then they shamelessly told the camps' residents to hold on just a little longer because "liberation is near."  

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Exactly 33 years ago, on Nov. 9, the First Intifada erupted. And what an eruption it was. Every Palestinian city, village, neighborhood, and household decided all at once to join mass riots and clashes with the IDF and Israeli settlers.

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The media adopted a brand new vocabulary using words like demonstrations, stone-throwing, Molotov cocktails, clubs, rubber and plastic bullets, mass arrests, and terrorist attacks.

There had been stillness and quiet in Judea and Samaria for two decades until the Palestinian protests erupted in our lives like a volcano that could not be controlled.

To put it in a modern context, the Intifada broke out like the coronavirus pandemic – nobody expected it, and for months on end, nobody knew when the right remedy would come along.

The 1987 Intifada was the first security incident that stood out for reasons other than the number of its casualties.
Many speculate about the reasons that could have possibly led to the outbreak of such a violent uprising – the lack of diplomatic horizon at the time, high levels of unemployment, especially among the Palestinian youth, the 1985 Jibril prison exchange agreement in which Israel released 1,150 security prisoners in exchange for three Israeli prisoners – a move that was interpreted by the Palestinians as a sign of Israel's weakness.

But very few speak about the consequences of the Intifada that affect our lives to this day.

The First Intifada damaged Israel's deterrent force. A direct line runs between the outcome of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Palestinian insurgency in Jordan and Lebanon in the 1970s, and the awakening of the settlers of Judea and Samaria in the 1980s. The mighty Israel that was dreaded after the 1967 Six-Day War was no longer intimidating and its security forces were no longer deterring.

The photograph of the 10-year-old boy throwing a stone at an Israeli tank in Nablus will forever be remembered as the Palestinian "David" who threatened the Israeli "Goliath" and succeeded.

It would take Israel a good few more years to restore its deterrence.

The First Intifada also damaged Israel's economy. Before the outbreak of the protests, the army had a minimal military presence in Judea and Samaria. After the events of December 1987, though, the Israeli government had to dispatch one military division to Judea and another one to Samaria. Tens of thousands of reservists were summoned from their workplaces and were sent to deal with riots in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza, and Rafah.

These military expenditures slowed down the Israeli economy significantly. The Intifada necessitated unexpected changes in the budget that had not been seen in the government since the Six-Day War.

The Intifada also undermined Israel's international image – Western viewers were sick and tired of seeing footage of the daily events.

For five years, their beloved TV shows kept being interrupted by annoying news of Israeli reservists instructing small children and their fathers to erase slogans from walls or remove flags from power poles. An image strikingly different from the courageous IDF soldiers Westerners envisaged before.

The Intifada eroded Israel's international standing, too. On a visit to Scandinavia, I asked them why there were against Israel. "Before 1967, we sent 50,000 volunteers to the kibbutzim. We supported you. But since you occupied the West Bank, you have lost our support. Not we support the Palestinians," one of the Danes answered.

It's been 33 years since the First Intifada, and we have still not learned our lesson. We haven't internalized the fact that even after decades of stillness and quiet, the Palestinian demand for liberation and independence might still rear its head. We chose to see the PLO problem abroad and refuse to see that there is a PLO right here at home.

Two significant events in Israeli history were not foreseen by our military intelligence – the Yom Kippur War and the First Intifada. We have learned our lesson from the wretched Yom Kippur War. Instead of doing the same with the First Intifada, we chose to blame the Israeli settlers of Judea and Samaria.

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Ra'am party leader MK Mansour Abbas recently experienced something familiar to former MK and current radio broadcaster Yigal Guetta of the Shas party. Both are honest and fair people who couldn't live in peace with their respective party's political platform. We can assume Abbas will be expelled from the Islamic Movement in Israel, which has no room for compromise and flexibility.

The movement that was created by individuals such as Raed Salah Mahajneh, Abd al-Malik Dahamsheh and Sheikh Tawfiq Khatib, adherents of the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine, is no longer right for him. The leaders of the Islamic Movement in Israel view the world strictly through the prism of "Islam is the solution." In other words, they aspire to an Islamic world without political borders, in which Islamic law (Shariah) is instituted and observed. According to the worldview of the Muslim Brotherhood, Christians, Jews and the followers of other religions are infidels who will either be exiled from the land or will live "as in the golden age of Islam" as second-class subjects required to pay a yearly "head tax" (jizya) to their Muslim rulers.

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MK Mansour Abbas, the deputy speaker of the Knesset, made a difficult decision stating the Islamic Movement can act as a moderate and conciliatory body that highlights the good values in Islam. Islam can conceal its principles of jihad (holy war) and shahadah (martyrdom) and accentuate equality, love of fellow man and hospitality. According to Abbas, "90% of Arab society" leans toward leniency and tolerance.

He calls for rapprochement between Jews and Arabs and for the Joint Arab List to empower women in political life. This is assuredly not the platform of the Islamic Movement, which is part of the Joint List. Rather, these ideals are apparently taken from the Friday sermons delivered by Imams in the United States, who are under the supervision of the FBI.

If Avigdor Lieberman were ever to sit down with Abbas, he'd welcome him to his Israel Beytenu party unconditionally. Firstly, because Abbas, before the last election, called for the establishment of an obstructionist bloc against Netanyahu and, in all seriousness, the man is the first "token Arab" who isn't trying to merge Zionist parties with communist ones. He didn't join Israel Beytenu, rather is a member of the Joint List under Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi – people who Lieberman frequently accuses of acting against the state. For this reason, the views expressed by Abbas are akin to a sharp dagger in the heart of the anti-Israeli public relations machine that has been built and cultivated over the decades by the Arab MKs whose entire political platform has been predicated on incitement.

Abbas is the first sign of a new spring, one that is fundamentally different from the events of the "Arab spring." Following his footsteps will be many more Arab Israelis who want to responsibly partake in the state's affairs. Abbas and many others with him are beginning to realize that a new reality in the region is taking shape before our very eyes. There are two reasons for this realization: The first being the diplomatic breakthroughs with Muslim Gulf states, welcomed naturally and even happily by Israeli society – a response worthy of impersonation.  Abbas will want to change the reality of "two states for two peoples," not out of defiance and rejectionism, but out of moderation and compromise.

If he continues on this path and isn't stopped by his faction mates, he'll likely be a cabinet minister one day. The second reason is the coronavirus, which has brought the Arab population into contact with senior Israeli leaders, IDF generals, the police and the Home Front Command – this time as allies facing a common threat. The shared struggle against the pandemic has shown both sides that Arabs don't have tails and Jews aren't descendants of monkeys and pigs, as claimed by the fanatics. I wouldn't‎'t be surprised if in a few more weeks Netanyahu calls Joe Biden in Washington and tells him: "Joe, I've persuaded Abbas… Mansour Abbas. What's going on with Mahmoud Abbas? Even the Emiratis said he'd call when anything has changed."

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The first wave passed, the second arrived, and Erekat himself contracted the virus. But he, like the rest of his people, urged the "the [Israeli] government and the spitters and the disease spreaders" in Jerusalem to take him in at Hadassah Medical Center, he being a VIP.

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I have been studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for 40 years and many times, I have encountered cases of Israel providing medical treatment to its bitter enemies. Israel has made humanitarian gestures to the most loathsome of our enemies. Relatives of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders who had cancer or other terminal illnesses were given high-quality treatment in Israeli hospitals. The official reason was that they could not be given life-saving treatment in the "territories." A relatives of Hamas-in-Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh was treated at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, an arrangement made by the Physicians for Human Rights NGO. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas insisted on being treated in Tel Aviv, rather than in Jordan or Turkey.

In other words, Israel is exerting itself to save the lives of relatives of terrorist leaders. In any other place in the world, such gestures would create a human bridge for peace, but not here. It's frustration that no matter how much we try to express values such as "tikkun olam," "recognizing the good in others," "anyone who saves a human life saves an entire universe," the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over land – which over the years has expanded to include enmity, hostility, and even hatred – is never forgiven. Even if we saved all the Arab residents of the territories, they would still see us as Satan, and seek our destruction.

In Lebanon, our neighbor to the North, there has been a debate ever since the catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut about whether or not the country should accept aid from Israel. "Scum!" shouted one man who was arguing with the government. "If you at least had a good alternative to the Jews … but what do you have to offer? Incitement?"

Still, there is one bright spot – the Gulf states. They have realized the benefit they could gain from ties with Israel, and if that message is relayed to other Arab states clearly and honestly, they – who currently think that Israel is "spreading COVID" – might change their minds.

It seems to me that this man, Saeb Erekat, is the living representation of the Palestinians' tragedy. He is intelligent, well-spoken, accepted internationally, but also a politician who is unable to utter the truth. I remember Erekat, the Palestinians' PR man, from the days he was an administrative prisoner in the 1980s, when he was a Fatah operative at An-Najah National University. This is a man who throughout his career has made some of the most delusional claims about Israel. He lied outright and without blinking an eye. During the events in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, he talked about "5,000 Palestinian casualties" to fan the flames in the territories.

If Saeb Erekat recovers, he will apparently give modest thanks to his doctors, who spared no effort to heal him, but I wouldn't be surprised if when speaking to the international media he makes an accusation: "Why should I thank Israel? They created this situation."

Wishing you a full recovery, Saeb.

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The UAE, supported by the US, intends to support Mohammed Dahlan, the exiled Fatah strongman who became an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Dahlan, considered part of the PLO mainstream and who is known for his good ties with Hamas leaders, is being touted as the replacement for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The belief that Abbas is continuing down the same dead end as his predecessors, prompted Gulf leaders to think and forge a new, modern, and sustainable path.

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Dahlan is supposed to be a different, innovative, and groundbreaking president, mainly without the fears that have prevented right up until today the signing of a permanent agreement with Israel. His first steps in creating a new base of support show his desire to bring peace, ahead of establishing a state with an economic footing that will bring hope to its citizens. The 15 years Dahlan that has spent doing business abroad will give him the requisite experience to establish a real state in the West Bank and Gaza, and not some kind of undefined body that survives on endless handouts and donations.

But Dahlan is in for a surprise. He won't be welcomed and he'll have to work his way through forcefully. Dahlan has already begun building the system that will make sure his landing is as soft as possible. But in the West Bank, there are those waiting who see themselves as potential inheritors: Jibril Rajoub, Mahmoud al Aloul, Tawfiq Tirawi, and Majed Faraj.

All understand that an attempt of the West with Israeli support to forcefully plant Dahlan could result in a bloodbath. Dahlan is leaving Gaza for the second stage, hoping that after they see how the West Bank improves, they'll want to duplicate his model. He is planning to implement all that he learned in the Gulf: establishing a democra-tatorship, meaning, centralized single rule which allows for a good life, widespread economic reform, infrastructure investment, innovative industry investments, tourism, banking, etc. "The Gulf states have oil," his opposition challenges him; "But the West Bank and Gaza can together with Israel be a popular tourist destination," his supporters answer back.

If we hear soon about "sides getting ready," don't be confused. These won't be political sides, but armed militia fighting to keep the traditional policies of the Palestinian leadership for generations against the parachuting of a western collaborator. Will Dahlan be able to seize the leadership in Ramallah without one bullet being fired, or will we have to watch a Palestinian civil war? Either way, the countdown has begun.

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