Is Abbas the key to Israeli annexation of West Bank lands?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had expected more widespread, angry protests than eventually took place on the streets of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Hebron following the Jan. 28 unveiling of the US plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. He was hoping that such demonstrations would boost support for his leadership even as the dream of the Palestinian state he had promised his people faded away.

The plan presented by President Donald Trump represents a personal blow for Abbas. Since being elected president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2005, Abbas has been promising Palestinians that peaceful methods would lead to a state, unlike the sometimes violent tactics advocated by his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Despite Abbas' efforts, for the past 15 years, he has endured constant blows, with none of his promises to the Palestinians being realized. In fact, peace has never seemed farther from fruition, and the occupation never deeper or more humiliating. From the Palestinians' perspective, the Trump plan legitimizes Israel’s occupation of their territory and legalizes the settlements built on their land. In other words, Abbas’ quest for a peaceful road to an independent state has been a miserable failure.