Erekat Threatens To Dismantle PA--You Call That A Threat!?

Now there's a question: should the Palestinian Authority be dismantled?

Apparently, some think that is an actual question--take Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, for instance:

Erekat said that if the United States continued to stymie the Palestinian efforts to get a state recognized by the United Nations, the Palestinian Authority should be dismantled.

"[PA President Mahmoud Abbas] should throw the keys in their faces," Erekat said.

But Erekat is on a roll, assuming that threatening to dismantle the PA is going to make the US rethink its position:

Erekat said that if the United States continued to stymie the Palestinian efforts to get a state recognized by the United Nations, the Palestinian Authority should be dismantled.

Of course, all of this is begging the question: should the PA exist at all, based on its track record of incompetence and corruption on the one hand and its refusal to negotiate with Israel on the other. And let's not forget the Palestinian Authorities persistent incitement of hatred of Israel, not to mention the the support of terrorism by paying salaries to terrorists in Israeli prisons which are more than the salaries of regular workers--no wonder they cannot pay salaries.

Rhetorical flourishes aside, Erekat is being absurd--but then again, this is what Erekat was saying to Arab envoys in Istanbul, so they probably ate this stuff up.

Come to think of it, I'm sure there are any number of European countries whose leaders feel the same way. For that matter, I imagine that the Obama administration also considers the Palestinian Authority to be indispensable to peace.

But for those who take into account the absence of any willingness to sit down with Israel and negotiate, and their expectation that Israel owes them any number of unilateral concessions, there really is a serious question as to why the PA as it exists now should be allowed to exist.

And contrary to what Erekat says, that question should be thrown into the faces of Erekat and Abbas to answer.

Technorati Tag: Palestinian Authority and Saeb Erekat.