Ghaith al-Omari is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Irwin Levy Family Program on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship.
Articles & Testimony
The Palestinian Authority may have avoided an immediate, devastating crisis following Israel's recent decision to resume the transfer of tax revenues, but the failure of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, and the unwillingness of the PA to exercise representative good governance, have created a dynamic that will continue to erode the PA's legitimacy, and could lead ultimately to its collapse.
To be sure, much has been invested in the PA, and there are important dynamics that militate against an imminent implosion. The world and regional order, which is largely invested in a two-state solution, sees the PA as the address for managing and ultimately resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For Israel, the PA fulfills an important security function in addition to being an interlocutor for peace. For the Palestinians, the public sector is by far the largest employer.
Despite this support, the PA is currently at its most fragile since its creation in 1994. Why? Because it has failed to deliver for the Palestinian people...
