RAMALLAH, west bank — Frustrated by the failure of U.S.-brokered peace talks and under growing pressure from his people to confront the Israeli occupation, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is launching diplomatic war against Israel.
He’s betting on a risky campaign to fully “internationalize the struggle” by moving toward the United Nations and away from the United States.
As part of their strategy, which the Israelis have dubbed a “diplomatic intifada,” the Palestinians are seeking support for statehood from the international community via resolutions in the United Nations and European parliaments calling for the end of Israeli occupation within two years and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Palestinians also are threatening to seek war crime charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court, an idea considered a “nuclear option” by the Palestinian leadership a few months ago. Last week, Abbas signed several U.N. treaties, including the Rome Statutes, and filed paperwork in a bid to have the Palestinian Authority join the ICC.
The stated goal is to embarrass, anger and isolate Israel, and thereby pressure ordinary Israelis to push their government to make a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Critics warn that the Israelis do not like to be pushed and might instead support strong countermeasures, including travel and work restrictions for Palestinians and accelerated Jewish settlement construction.
For their part, the Israelis say that it is the Palestinians who have walked away from peace offers and are the intransigent party. They say that if any party to the conflict should be tried for war crimes, it is Hamas, which fires rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities.
Palestinian officials describe their campaign as both an act of desperation and a huge gamble.
“The past approach was not taking us anywhere,” said Mohammad Shtayyeh, a veteran Palestinian peace negotiator who resigned in protest halfway though the last round of talks, which collapsed in April. “At least this strategy has not failed yet.”
The campaign to seek greater recognition from the international community represents a public rebuff of the Obama administration, which has warned the Palestinians that unilateral moves at the ICC and the United Nations will ultimately fail to get them a state.
The Palestinian strategy also threatens to raise the hackles of Congress, which can cut off vital funding to the Palestinian Authority, money that pays for aid projects that employ tens of thousands of Palestinians.
