After fifty years of occupation, what's next: an open letter to President Mahmoud Abbas

In a recent meeting with Arab ambassadors, you said "I will take unprecedented steps against Hamas since it halted the [Fatah-Hamas] reconciliation. The measures will be painful if the movement does not take back its actions." Instead, you should mobilize the Arab states, especially Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar, to persuade and/or pressure Hamas to accept the Arab Peace Initiative so that it will be in line with the rest of the Arab states in relation to a peace agreement with Israel.

To be sure, Mr. Abbas, your political legitimacy has been and will continue to be a problem for you as well as for Hamas. The Palestinian parliament (which had limited oversight powers) has been defunct since Hamas overtook Gaza in 2007, and both of you rule by decree.

Given this sad reality, why do you expect Israel to simply overlook your precarious political situation? Those Israelis who oppose the rise of Palestinian statehood regularly point to your thin political base and disarray, and have convinced much of the Israeli public that you are not and will not be a partner that can forge an enduring peace agreement.

Another major problem that impedes real progress toward peace is the pervasive corruption throughout your government strata. A 2016 poll of Palestinians revealed that 95.5 percent of respondents "believe there is corruption in [your] government." Among Gazan residents, the percentage is slightly lower, but still stands at 82 percent.

You have enforced the perception of rampant corruption by allowing, for example, the Palestinian Authority's development budget to earmark $9.4 million for your presidential plane and $4.4 million of undefined "other" expenses. Corruption also exists within your own circle of advisors and party elites, who are given hefty salaries and awarded with positions and various other perks-tens of millions of dollars end up in foreign banks. The European Union noted that overall corruption in the Palestinian Authority resulted in the "loss" of approximately €2 billion in aid funds.

Imagine, Mr. Abbas-if these funds were invested in sustainable development projects and infrastructure, how much would the public have benefited in terms of job opportunities, self-empowerment, education, and overall progress? In this respect, Hamas fares even worse as they have and continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into building tunnels and buying and manufacturing weapons, instead of building housing, clinics, schools, roads, sewage systems, and electric grids to bring an end to the Palestinians' pain and suffering.

Sadly, many Palestinian leaders are still focused on destroying Israel rather than building their own nation, arguing that focusing on development and building infrastructure and civilian institutions is tantamount to acceptance of the status quo. They are dead wrong. It is the very building of state structures and a thriving society that you do not want to be destroyed that will indirectly give Israel the confidence that you want an enduring peace.

In contrast to Israel, which became a global power and one of the most advanced nations in the world, the Palestinians remain an underdeveloped entity. Instead of building a promising future for generations to come by accepting the reality of Israel and learning to compete constructively, Palestinian school curricula includes indoctrination and preparation for the next violent conflict, portraying every Israeli as a soldier ready to kill and destroy.

What further strengthens the Israeli argument that the Palestinians will never accept Israel under any boundary is that schools use maps that do not detail Israel's internationally-defined borders along the 1967 borders-which you accept. Your Education Minister Sabri Saidam noted that "I will only stick to the map that the Palestinians desire." The presence of maps that do not delineate Israel's existence in textbooks has "ripple effects" as it further prolongs the conflict in the hope of recovering the whole land. For instance, a question seeking the "surface area of Palestine" was marked true for the answer 27,027 square kilometers, which would include all of present-day Israel.

A recent survey of Palestinian textbooks found an exercise in a fourth grade book that "invites the children to write about a Palestinian martyr of their choice." In defense of using the word "martyrs," your minister Saidam said "One man's hero is another man's terrorist." He has rejected attempts by UNRWA to bring the Palestinian curriculum up to UN standards, stating "As education minister, it's my responsibility to safeguard the Palestinian narrative." The fact that you accept your minister's position on this critically sensitive issue suggests that you are just as culpable as he is, but it is you who must shoulder the ultimate responsibility.

I personally do believe that you want to settle the conflict with Israel based on a two-state solution. But if you put yourself, Mr. Abbas, in the shoes of an Israeli who is looking at what is being said, done, claimed, promoted, preached in mosques, and taught in schools, how would you feel? This is what you are confronted with. Your statement in support of a two-state solution sounds hollow and insincere, regardless of your true intentions.

Mr. Abbas, you must realize that the resumption of peace negotiations under the present circumstances is futile and will lead nowhere. You must start by changing your public narrative and being honest with your public that the policy of confrontation has failed. A new strategy is needed to enlist the center and left of Israel's political spectrum in support of a two-state solution, while disabusing many Israelis who feed off the conflict to justify their recalcitrant opposition to ending the occupation.