MESSAGE
| DATE | 2025-07-08 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] [Jewish] Hebron - the full article
|
There is a follow up on this now in the Jerusalem Post
My issue with this is, BTW, that these Sheiks haven't demonstrated that
they either legally or through popular support represent ANYONE other
than their own interests.
I fear that their calculus is that the Israelis will lift them into
power based on this position and they have no actual powerbase.
It is heartfelt and brings tears to hear Muslims to admit that the
Jewish people own their history and are indeed native to the Holyland,
which is the core problem of this conflict, but it that changes nothing
with regards to the real polical situation. Hebron, historically, is
one of the most radical communities in the West Bank. They picks won't
put up with even a few Jewish families in the ancient city...which has
Jewish fingerprints all over it..
Reuvain
JULY 6, 2025 08:42
Updated: JULY 6, 2025 21:08
The South Hebron Hills seem ancient and as unchanging as ever, but
massive change may be in the air.
In the aftermath of the Wall Street Journal’s blockbuster disclosure
early Sunday morning that half a dozen major Palestinian sheikhs from
the Hebron area, all led by Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari (also known as Abu
Sanad), are ready to break off from the Palestinian Authority and sign a
new Abraham Accords-style deal with Israel as the “Emirates of Hebron,”
The Jerusalem Post can now disclose having recently met with Jaabari at
his ceremonial tent.
It was also disclosed that another 13 sheikhs from the Hebron area also
plan to leave the PA.
At the meeting, Jaabari, 48, wore a large and flowing white robe with
gold stripes and a black-striped headdress. He also wore multiple large
ceremonial rings; one on one hand and two on the other hand. His beard
was still mostly black, though with shades of gray.
The “tent” itself was mostly red and was no normal tent. It ranged
around 15 by 10 meters and had a very high ceiling.
Palestinians shop at a market ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival, in the
West Bank city of Hebron, on June 5, 2025. (credit: WISAM
HASHLAMOUN/FLASH90)
Palestinians shop at a market ahead of the Eid al-Adha festival, in the
West Bank city of Hebron, on June 5, 2025. (credit: WISAM
HASHLAMOUN/FLASH90)
Though it seemed somewhat unchanged from when earlier sheikhs in his
family line – who, according to the local leader, have ruled Hebron
since the time of Saladin – may have also conducted the region’s
affairs, there was powerful air conditioning to withstand the intense
heat of the surrounding desert.
Surprisingly, the tent was not, at that moment, surrounded by many
security guards, though the Post was later told that this might have
been done temporarily to make it less intimidating for this visiting
reporter.
Some less powerful sheikhs are known to have their homes surrounded by
as many as 10 gunmen.
At this meeting, there was only one male attendee providing drinks,
fruits, and other food, as well as three young children, seemingly
between the ages of four and seven, running around nearby. One of them
sported a Spider-Man-style shirt.
Despite the low-key attendees, the meeting itself was marked by
officialdom and honorifics, with the early discussion centering around
the illustrious history of the Jaabari family from Saladin to the
sheikh’s grandfather and father.
The sheikh said he had control of around 78% of Hebron’s greater metro
population, which could translate into over 700,000 Palestinians. The
simple but radical premise he proposed was that he was ready, along with
the other sheikhs (four of whom the Post interacted with separately), to
recognize Israel as a Jewish state and end all claims in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Assembling an 'Emirates of Hebron'
He would do so with the goal of eventually assembling six other
Palestinian “emirates” (designed like the UAE), comprising the
Bethlehem, Jericho, Nablus, Tulkarm, Jenin, Kalkilya, and Ramallah
areas.
These are the main areas the Palestinian West Bank was divided into
under the mid-1990s Oslo Accords, which, while barely functioning, have
governed Israeli-Palestinian relations for three decades.
Sheikh Jaabari told the Post he was willing to make this massive shift
in exchange for Israel’s support in removing the PA from the area,
restoring work permits that were suspended after October 7, 2023,
building new joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial work zones, and for
some pieces of Area C.
The Jaabari family has hated the PA for decades, and, since it torched a
PA police station and took 34 PA officers hostage in 2007 in reprisal
for their killing a member of the Jaabari clan, it has already reduced
PA intervention in Hebron affairs.
Jaabari’s father has had numerous meetings with Israeli officials,
including one attended years ago by another Post reporter, to try to
move forward with coexistence initiatives that do not involve the PA.
But what is unique about this latest initiative is that it happened in
the post-Abraham Accords and post-October 7 world.
Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein wrote an op-ed in May after meeting
with Minister Nir Barkat, who is the lead Israeli figure behind the
initiative, in which he discussed it at a more general conceptual level.
Barkat has kept Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the loop, but even
the risk-averse prime minister has stayed out of it directly until now
to see which way the wind would blow.
The IDF and Shin Bet oppose the initiative
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) intensely opposes the initiative.
While the security agency is not satisfied with the PA’s fight against
Palestinian terror, it still regards it as the only body that can really
assist Israel in curbing terror across the entire West Bank.
Some Israeli officials estimate the PA has as many as 70,000
soldier-officers, including a smaller group of commandos – not an easy
body to replace.
The officials estimate that there are around 4,000 PA officers in
Hebron, along with 200 commandos.
Throughout the years, despite contrary threats to cut off relations, the
PA has shared intelligence with the Shin Bet, helping them to capture at
least some Palestinian terrorists, especially Hamas.
Sometimes the PA’s motivation for sharing such intelligence is to weaken
Hamas opposition, but Israel does not really care about its motivation
if the result is capturing terrorists.
The IDF has similar opposition to the idea, also counting on the PA for
security cooperation.
What has happened in Jenin since December 2024 is a good metaphor for
the dilemma.
For six weeks, the PA, partially at Israel’s urging, hounded its own
people in the Jenin area who were engaging in terror and violent
protests.
It substantially succeeded at reducing terror in the area but failed to
gain control of the internal Jenin refugee camp.
Eventually, on January 21, the IDF entered the camp itself and started a
multi-month operation to truly root out the remaining terror elements.
So the PA helped but also failed.
This is the history of the PA in the West Bank – helping the Shin Bet
and IDF at times, but not when the other Palestinian fighters are “too
strong.”
The Shin Bet and IDF prefer the enemy they know to the one they don’t.
They worry that a loose confederation of emirates in the West Bank would
be unmanageable, not to mention that this initiative could lead to an
unpredictable Palestinian civil war.
Jaabari told the Post that if Israel supports him, he can rout the PA in
Hebron in hours or days without too much bloodshed, since many of its
officers are actually part of his clan.
He said that in his Hebron region, his word is law, and promised that he
could bring total and utter quiet to an area that a decade ago was among
the worst and most chaotic.
This is because Hebron is still run primarily by the tribal clans, and
he can take swift and, if needed, deadly action against anyone who
violates his decrees.
The deal that Jaabari has negotiated with Barkat discusses 1,000 new
Palestinian workers in Israel from Hebron, followed by 5,000 after a
trial period.
But these numbers are tiny compared to the pre-October 7 numbers of
210,000 Palestinian workers in Israel.
Jaabari insisted that Barkat and Israel would give him 50,000 from
Hebron alone within a short period of time.
The arrangements for Area C are more questionable.
Jaabari would probably get some new parts of Area C, but Israeli
officials would also likely try to use the new accords to take larger
areas for Israel.
In this way, Palestinians may complain that this new deal is worse for
them as a group and nation than getting a more independent and larger
Palestinian state along the lines of the 1967 Six Day War.
Also, the accords would permanently yield Jerusalem to Israel and
dispose of the “return of refugees” issue, though it would enshrine
Palestinian autonomy over the Temple Mount Muslim prayer areas.
Why would Jaabari make such concessions, which the PA would never make,
and much of the world would oppose?
From his perspective, the PA was a foreign force from Tunisia (where PLO
and then-PA leader Yasser Arafat was expelled to before Oslo) that
returned to the West Bank after over 20 years of exile and pushed down
the traditional sheikhdoms that had always run all Palestinian affairs
in the area.
He told the Post that all critical local services are still handled by
his council of sheikhs, and that all the PA does is collect taxes, a way
of appropriating local money for its corrupt “foreign” needs.
Put differently, Jaabari sees the PA as only a parasite and wants back
full control of the area, which he and his council say existed for
hundreds of years before the Oslo Accords.
Also, after October 7, he simply believes that the pre-war idea of a
Palestinian state is dead and that Israelis will never accept it.
So what is the point of waiting around for a pipe dream while the PA
takes portions of his clan’s money in the meantime?
Jaabari is up against the Shin Bet, the IDF, possibly Netanyahu (his
final position is undecided), the PA, and probably much of the world,
which is still set on the traditional Oslo-era two-state solution.
It is unclear whether US President Donald Trump would weigh in on the
issue and try to sway the world toward accepting it, especially if
Israel itself has not decided its position.
And if Netanyahu ever started talking about the plan seriously in
public, would it be because he actually intended to implement it – or to
use it as a bluff to pressure the Saudis into normalization at a lower
price for what he would need to give the PA (by telling the Saudis he
will move along with the plan if they don’t)?
But Trump loves normalization deals, and the Abraham Accords were
carried out despite PA opposition.
From one perspective, this could be a new pragmatic way for Israelis and
Palestinians to coexist and live in peace after 33 years of Oslo has not
yielded this.
Some of the Israeli Right are enthusiastic about the initiative because
it would allow them to keep Jerusalem and to take more portions of Area
C, while the local sheikhs would also support it to get the PA off their
backs.
From another perspective, it may be an unrealistic pipe dream of a group
of local sheikhs and right-wing Israelis up against much larger forces
within their own people and globally.
Even if it did go ahead, it is also unclear how many Palestinians would
still be satisfied in 10 years, when October 7 is more of a distant
memory, after giving up full statehood and east Jerusalem.
But Sheikh Jaabari made it clear that he is not waiting idly anymore and
is stating the question publicly to Israel and the world: do you want to
take his hand and forge a new kind of coexistence or not?
On Sun, Jul 06, 2025 at 09:30:37PM -0400, Karen Perilman wrote:
> I am speechless…….
> My attitude is to wait and see, and not easily agree until…….
> There is still the issue of Taquiyah… the art of the lie….
>
> I want to see what Israeli’s living there now think.
> I will remain optimistic, but cautiously…..
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Jul 6, 2025, at 6:02 PM, Ruben Safir wrote:
> >
> > OPINION
> > COMMENTARY
> > Follow
> > A New Palestinian Offer for Peace With Israel
> > Hebron’s sheikhs propose to leave the Palestinian Authority and join the
> > Abraham Accords.
> > By Elliot Kaufman
> > July 5, 2025 10:26 pm ET
> >
> > 
> > Share
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> > (2 min)
> >
> > 
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> >
> > Journal Editorial Report: Trump's not done making big calls.
> > The idea of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians has
> > never seemed more futile than in the months since Oct. 7, 2023. But
> > maybe that opens the door to a new way of achieving peace.
> >
> > “We want cooperation with Israel,” says Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari, also
> > known as Abu Sanad, from his ceremonial tent in Hebron, the West Bank’s
> > largest city located south of Jerusalem. “We want coexistence.” The
> > leader of Hebron’s most influential clan has said such things before, as
> > did his father. But this time is different. Sheikh Jaabari and four
> > other leading Hebron sheikhs have signed a letter pledging peace and
> > full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for Hebron
> > to break out of the Palestinian Authority, establish an emirate of its
> > own, and join the Abraham Accords.
> >
> > The letter is addressed to Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat, a former
> > mayor of Jerusalem, who has brought Mr. Jaabari and other sheikhs to his
> > home and met with them more than a dozen times since February. They ask
> > him to present it to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and await his reply.
> >
> > “The Emirate of Hebron shall recognize the State of Israel as the nation
> > state of the Jewish people,” the sheikhs write, “and the State of Israel
> > shall recognize the Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab
> > residents in the Hebron District.” Accepting Israel as a Jewish state
> > goes further than the Palestinian Authority ever has, and sweeps aside
> > decades of rejectionism.
> >
> > The letter seeks a timetable for negotiations to join the Abraham
> > Accords and “a fair and decent arrangement that would replace the Oslo
> > Accords, which only brought damage, death, economic disaster and
> > destruction.” The Oslo Accords, agreed to by Israel and the Palestine
> > Liberation Organization in the 1990s, “have brought upon us the corrupt
> > Palestinian Authority, instead of recognizing the traditional, authentic
> > local leadership.” That would be the clans, the great families that
> > still shape Palestinian society.
> >
> > The sheikhs propose that Israel would admit 1,000 workers from Hebron
> > for a trial period, then 5,000 more. Sheikh Jaabari and another major
> > sheikh say Mr. Barkat has told them this number will grow to 50,000
> > workers or more from Hebron. Work in Israel is a valuable source of
> > income for Palestinian communities, which have had little development of
> > their own under Palestinian Authority rule, but most permits were
> > suspended after Oct. 7. The sheikhs’ letter pledges “zero tolerance” for
> > terrorism by workers, “in contrast to the current situation in which the
> > Palestinian Authority pays tributes to the terrorists.”
> >
> > Mr. Barkat says the old peace process failed, so “new thinking is
> > needed.” He has been working with the knowledge of his Israeli
> > government to explore possibilities with the sheikhs. A senior Israeli
> > source says Mr. Netanyahu has been supportive but cautious, waiting to
> > see how the initiative develops. The timing may be out of his hands now
> > that Sheikh Jaabari is extending the olive branch in public.
> >
> > With their bold move, the sheikhs expect to swing Israeli public opinion
> > to their side. “Nobody in Israel believes in the PA, and you won’t find
> > many Palestinians who do either,” Mr. Barkat says. “Sheikh Jaabari wants
> > peace with Israel and to join the Abraham Accords, with the support of
> > his fellow sheikhs. Who in Israel is going to say no?”
> >
> > The 48-year-old Sheikh Jaabari often cites his illustrious ancestors,
> > but his actions are guided as much by his view of the future. “There
> > will be no Palestinian state—not even in 1,000 years,” he says. “After
> > Oct. 7, Israel will not give it.” A second major Hebron sheikh, who
> > signed and declares his loyalty to Sheikh Jaabari, agrees: “To think
> > only about making a Palestinian state will bring us all to disaster.”
> > (The other sheikhs spoke anonymously for their safety.)
> >
> > I watched videos of Sheikh Jaabari and another sheikh signing the letter
> > and reviewed documents elaborating on the plan made with Mr. Barkat,
> > which includes the creation of a joint economic zone on more than 1,000
> > acres near the security fence between Hebron and Israel. The sheikhs
> > expect it to employ tens of thousands.
> >
> > A document in Hebrew lists the Hebron-area sheikhs who have joined the
> > emirate initiative. The first circle has eight major sheikhs, who
> > together are believed to lead 204,000 local residents. The second circle
> > lists 13 more sheikhs, who lead another 350,000. That makes a majority
> > of the more than 700,000 people in the area. Both circles have sworn
> > allegiance to Sheikh Jaabari in this matter, an Israeli associate of the
> > sheikh witnessed. Those clan members also include many of the
> > Palestinian Authority’s local foot soldiers. The sheikhs expect them to
> > side with family.
> >
> > 
> > Former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, now Israel’s economy minister, Oct.
> > 6, 2021. PHOTO: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS
> > “I plan to cut off the PA,” Sheikh Jaabari says. “It doesn’t represent
> > the Palestinians.” The clans governed their own localities for hundreds
> > of years, he says. Then “the Israeli state decided for us. It brought
> > the PLO and told the Palestinians: Take this.” Yasser Arafat’s PLO had
> > been exiled to Tunisia, after being chased out of Jordan and Lebanon,
> > when the first Oslo Accord in 1993 installed it in the West Bank. This
> > was called the peace process, but the sheikh says he never saw any peace
> > from it.
> >
> > “There is an Arab proverb,” Sheikh Jaabari says: “Only the village’s
> > calves plow its land. This means that a person who lives for decades
> > outside—what does he know about where the springs of water in Hebron are
> > located? The only thing you”—the PLO—“know about Hebron is collecting
> > taxes.”
> >
> > Four other Hebron sheikhs, whom I interview separately over Zoom, are
> > even more strident. “The PLO called itself a liberation movement. But
> > once they got control, they act only to steal the money of the people,”
> > one major sheikh says. “They don’t have the right to represent us—not
> > them and not Hamas, only we ourselves.”
> >
> > Advertisement
> >
> > 
> > “We want the world to hear our pain,” another sheikh chimes in. “The PA
> > steals everything. They even steal our water. We don’t have water to
> > drink.” They make do, they say, only because Mr. Barkat got the mayor of
> > the Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba to build a water pipe connecting to
> > central Hebron. The sheikhs say they mostly get along with the settlers
> > and that many Palestinians used to earn good money in the settlements.
> >
> > The settlers will find much to like in the plan, which breaks from the
> > Oslo Accords’ scheme to divide the land. While the Hebron sheikhs would
> > gain territory, so would the settlers, from the open land in what’s
> > known as Area C. But how much, and where? Could it turn into a land grab?
> >
> > These are key details that the letter merely says must be negotiated.
> > They contain the potential for explosive disagreement. Then again, the
> > sheikhs’ letter mentions conversations with Yossi Dagan, the settler
> > leader for Samaria. He says he supports and has worked on the plan, and
> > that issues of land can be worked out between people of faith who want
> > peace. Mr. Dagan says he first met Sheikh Jaabari 13 years ago: “His
> > father was a courageous leader who put his people first, and the son is
> > the same.” The sheikhs also met Israel Ganz, who leads the settlement
> > council, and with whom Mr. Barkat has worked on potential maps.
> >
> > Mr. Barkat says people around the world ask Israel, “You’re against the
> > two-state solution, and you’re against the one-state solution, so what
> > the hell are you for?” The answer he found, about five years ago, was
> > the emirates solution. It’s the brainchild of Mordechai Kedar, a scholar
> > of Arab culture at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. Mr. Kedar brought
> > Sheikh Jaabari to Mr. Barkat and watched the partnership bloom.
> >
> > “You’ve seen the letter?” Mr. Kedar exclaims. That means it’s really
> > happening. For 20 years, he’s been trying to sell the idea of
> > Palestinian emirates, with the West Bank’s seven culturally distinctive
> > cities run individually by their leading clans. He first met Sheikh
> > Jaabari’s father, Sheikh Abu Khader, 11 years ago. “To gain and earn
> > trust, you have to sit with a man,” Mr. Kedar says. “That means to speak
> > with him in his own mamaloshen”—the Yiddish term for mother tongue—“in
> > Arabic.”
> >
> > He says failing states in the Arab world—Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Sudan,
> > Yemen, Libya—are conglomerates of ethnic, religious and sectarian
> > groups, with modern states imposed flimsily on top. Successes—Kuwait,
> > Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the seven emirates of the U.A.E.—are each
> > controlled by one family. “Al-Sabah owns Kuwait. Al-Thani owns Qatar.
> > Al-Saud owns Saudi Arabia,” he says. “Dubai has very little oil, but
> > it’s run by one family, al-Maktoum,” so it can thrive.
> >
> > The idea of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority was to supplant
> > traditional clan and religious loyalties with a national Palestinian
> > identity. “It failed,” Mr. Kedar says, “and the proof is Hamas,” which
> > puts radical Islam first. Underneath it all, the clan system survived:
> > “Somebody from Hebron—not only will he not move to another West Bank
> > town because he will be viewed as a foreigner, but even in Hebron he
> > will not move to another neighborhood that belongs to another clan.”
> >
> > Hebron’s clans are particularly strong. “Hebron is much more
> > traditional, much more conservative, especially compared to Ramallah,”
> > Mr. Kedar says. “Hebron will be the test case for this idea of the
> > emirates.” He, Mr. Barkat and the sheikhs all expect Hebron to lay the
> > groundwork for change in other West Bank cities, perhaps next in
> > Bethlehem, refashioning Israel-Palestinian relations.
> >
> > “Organizations like the PLO and Hamas try to construct their legitimacy
> > on Jew-hatred and hatred of Israel. But the clans are legitimate by
> > definition,” Mr. Kedar says. “They don’t need an external enemy to
> > frighten everybody to come under the aegis of an illegitimate ruler.”
> >
> > The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority “can’t protect us, it can’t
> > even protect itself,” Sheikh Jaabari says. His fellow sheikhs warn that
> > the PA could allow an Oct. 7-style terrorist attack on Israel, after
> > which they expect the West Bank to look like Gaza, their great fear. But
> > a prominent Hebron sheikh says: “If we will get the blessing of
> > honorable President Trump and the United States for this project, Hebron
> > could be like the Gulf, like Dubai.”
> >
> > That’s more or less how Mr. Trump laid out the options for the Middle
> > East in his May 13 speech in Saudi Arabia. Do you want to be like Iran
> > or like the Gulf? The sheikhs have made their decision.
> >
> > But will their plan get off the ground? The first five sheikhs were
> > ready to move at the end of Ramadan, after signing the letter on March
> > 24, Mr. Barkat says. They complain that he asked them to wait for months
> > because Israel was busy, first in Gaza, then in Iran. Mr. Barkat reminds
> > Israeli officials that the sheikhs have put their lives in peril and
> > operate on a timeline of their own. Now, he says, Israel must protect
> > them: “The PA is the problem, and they are the solution.”
> >
> > Many more sheikhs have joined the initiative since March, and the
> > leaders are confident they have the Palestinian Authority outmanned and
> > outgunned. “The people are with us,” one sheikh says. “Nobody respects
> > the PA, nobody wants them.” The only reason to wait for Israel “is
> > because it protects the PA.”
> >
> > That’s the problem. If the sheikhs’ illegally armed men take to the
> > street, will the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency
> > stand against them? If so, it would be the triumph of habit over reason,
> > Mr. Barkat says. “Since Oslo, 30 years ago, the Israeli security
> > services have been instructed to work with the PA. It’s all they know.”
> >
> > The Shin Bet declined to comment. Political and security sources,
> > however, say that the agency views the authority as critical in the
> > fight against West Bank terrorism, and has opposed the sheikhs’ plan
> > internally. Worries abound of potential violence or anarchy in other
> > West Bank cities, where sheikhs aren’t prepared. The IDF also has raised
> > concerns.
> >
> > Many in Israel’s security establishment believe West Bank clans are too
> > fragmented to govern or to fight terrorism. “How do you deal with dozens
> > of different families, each of them armed, each under its own control?”
> > asks retired Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, who led IDF Central Command from
> > 2007-09. “The IDF would be caught in the crossfire—it would be a mess, a
> > disaster.” Mr. Shamni rejects the idea that “the national aspirations of
> > Palestinians will disappear and you can deal with each tribe
> > separately.” In his view, “there is no way to control the West Bank and
> > manage life there without the central authority.”
> >
> > Retired Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, founder of the Israel Defense and
> > Security Forum, disagrees. He says the Palestinian Authority is the
> > central incubator of terrorism, via school indoctrination and
> > pay-to-slay salaries to terrorists. He also suggests the Shin Bet may
> > change its mind when David Zini, the right-wing general nominated by Mr.
> > Netanyahu, soon takes over the agency.
> >
> > Mr. Avivi has met Sheikh Jaabari several times and judges him serious,
> > especially after rallying so many other sheikhs to his side. He adds,
> > “If Israel’s position is that the PA can’t be allowed to rule in Gaza
> > because they’re terrorists and they’re corrupt, why are they OK to rule
> > in the West Bank?”
> >
> > The sheikhs say they can remove the PA from Hebron in a week, or a day,
> > depending on how aggressively they move. “Just don’t get involved,” a
> > leading Hebron sheikh advises Israel. “Be out of the picture.” They
> > believe Mr. Trump’s support can clinch it with Mr. Netanyahu.
> >
> > They also say they’re capable and motivated to fight terrorism. “We know
> > who makes problems and who doesn’t,” one says, “because we live in our
> > land.” Ideology and extremism are threats to the tribal loyalty and
> > economic pragmatism on which the sheikhs’ power depends.
> >
> > A cynic could say the sheikhs disdain the Palestinian Authority for
> > extracting rents that they would prefer for themselves. But consider the
> > competition. An Israeli associate of the sheikhs shows me a video of the
> > Palestinian Authority governor of Hebron, Khaled Doudin, complaining in
> > a Jan. 4 speech that the sheikhs’ men fire at them but not at Israel.
> >
> > Palestinian Authority security forces are already unwelcome in the
> > sheikhs’ neighborhoods and would risk their lives if they appeared there
> > without prior Israeli coordination. In 2007, Palestinian police shot and
> > killed a teenage member of the Jaabari clan. The sheikh’s father asked
> > for the shooter to be turned over. When the Palestinian Authority
> > refused, the sheikh’s men took over its police station, burned 14 jeeps
> > and held 34 officers hostage, according to an article in Israel’s
> > Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. The clash ended only when President Mahmoud
> > Abbas backed down, declaring the boy a martyr and paying his family
> > lifetime compensation. Ever since, the PA has held less sway in the area.
> >
> > Asked if he is worried his vision of coexistence with Israel will be
> > called a betrayal of the Palestinian people and their cause, Sheikh
> > Jaabari scoffs. “The betrayal was done in Oslo. You forgot, but I
> > remember—33 years of it,” of false promises, violence, theft and
> > poverty, even as billions of aid dollars poured in from the West. “I
> > believe in my path,” the sheikh says. “There will be obstacles, but if
> > we confront a rock, we will have iron to break it.”
> >
> > Mr. Kaufman is a Journal editorial-board member. Yonah Jeremy Bob
> > contributed reporting from Hebron.
> >
> > 
> > Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari in Jerusalem, July 3. PHOTO: COURTESY OF WADEE'
> > AL-JAABARI
> > Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
> > 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
> > Appeared in the July 7, 2025, print edition as 'A New Palestinian Offer
> > for Peace With Israel'.
> >
> > 
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> > What to Read Next
> > OPINION
> > Opinion: The GOP Gambles on ‘Trump Accounts’
> > 1 hour ago
> >
> >
> > --
> > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
> > that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
> > proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
> > http://www.mrbrklyn.com
> > DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
> >
> > http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
> > http://www.brooklyn-living.com
> >
> > Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
> > but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
> >
> > --
> > Jewish mailing list
> > Jewish-at-mrbrklyn.com
> > http://lists.mrbrklyn.com/mailman/listinfo/jewish
>
> --
> Jewish mailing list
> Jewish-at-mrbrklyn.com
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--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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