Of course such a unilateral declaration would finally tell the “refugees” that they are totally screwed. Israel would not even need to give them the cash they had formerly offered. I wonder how their arab ‘hosts’ will look at that.
Anyway I do not think it needs to be a disaster. It might be the only move Abbas has left Wiki has shown that he probably cannot negotiate because he cant sell the neccessary compromises.
One response, if this is the way Abbas is determined to go would be to:
1) complete the IDF withdrawal, now near done anyway
2) consolidate the settlements they want to keep and annex them formally
3) vote yes recognizing the Palestinian state. Make a nice flowery speech to go with it.
5) Palestinians holding Israeli residency cards may be offered Israeli citizenship if they check out OK. Otherwise they are subject to deportation.
4) Explain to Abbas that as Oslo no longer applies water, tourism, transportation and trade arrangements will now need to be renegotiated. Such arrangements tied to the recognition of formal borders acceptable to the State of Israel.
5) Also any attack coming from Gaza will be considered not just as a Hamas attack but a military provocation from the Palestinian state and dealt with accordingly.
There are other implications I am sure. A declaration like this would be a despiration move. Palestinians will end up with much less than if they had negotiated.
