The Palestinian Authority Myth: Decades of Western Self-Deception

Part 5|#6:: The Two State Solution Vs Security Realities

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Western Self-Deception of The Palestinian Authority Myth

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the United Nations podium on September 26, 2025, to do what Western leaders had avoided for three decades: state openly that the Palestinian Authority was never a partner for peace—only a carefully maintained illusion. Not with diplomatic niceties, but with facts that Western leaders had spent billions of dollars pretending not to see. The Palestinian Authority Myth—the delusion that Mahmoud Abbas’s regime represents a viable “partner for peace” and a credible alternative to Hamas—collapsed under the weight of evidence Netanyahu marshaled. Yet even as he spoke, Western governments were already doubling down on their investment in this fiction, recognizing a Palestinian state under two years after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

How does an autocrat now in his 20th year of a four-year term qualify as a “reformed Palestinian Authority”? How does a government that pays $330 million annually to terrorists and their families represent “moderation”? How does a regime that presides over the decimation of Christian populations wherever it governs embody “tolerance”?

These aren’t rhetorical questions. They’re the uncomfortable truths that expose the Palestinian Authority Myth for what it is: Western self-deception masquerading as Middle East policy.

The Pay-for-Slay Program: Terrorism as a Government Budget Line Item

Netanyahu exposed the single most damning fact about the Palestinian Authority that Western media systematically buries:

“PA President Mahmoud Abbas… still [pays] hundreds of millions to terrorists who murdered Israelis and Americans. It’s called Pay for Slay. The more you murder, the more you get paid.”

This isn’t hyperbole. It’s documented Palestinian law.

According to Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19 (2004), Palestinians convicted of terrorism against Israel receive monthly “salaries” from the PA—explicitly, legally, systematically.

The payment scale is perversely precise:

• 3 years imprisonment: $400/month
• 5-10 years: $1,142/month
• Life sentences (the most brutal killers): $3,000+/month

Plus guaranteed employment in PA institutions upon release.

The total annual payout: $330 million—representing 7% of the PA’s entire budget as of 2025.

To put that in perspective: The PA spends more on rewarding terrorists ($330M) than on general welfare programs for its entire population ($220M).

This isn’t a “welfare program” for families affected by Israeli occupation, as PA apologists claim. This is a government-legislated incentive system explicitly designed to reward violence against Israelis.

The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs concluded bluntly:

“The Palestinian Authority’s institutionalized and legislated salary payments… reflect the ironclad formal commitment of the PA and its leadership to incentivize Palestinian society to commit acts of terror. This constitutes the major obstacle to peace.”

When American veteran Taylor Force was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in 2016, the U.S. Congress finally passed the Taylor Force Act (2018), cutting U.S. aid to the PA until these payments stop.

The PA’s response? They transferred management of the payments from the PA Ministry to the PLO Commission of Prisoners Affairs—changing the letterhead but not the practice.

As of March 2025, despite Abbas’s announced “reforms,” payments continue as usual. Only the bank account changed.

Twenty Years Without Elections: Abbas’s Eternal “Four-Year Term”

The Palestinian Authority Myth depends on pretending that Mahmoud Abbas represents the Palestinian people through democratic legitimacy.

Here are the facts:

Abbas was elected on January 9, 2005—for a four-year term ending January 9, 2009.

He is still in power today: January 28, 2026.

That’s 21 years—more than five times his constitutional mandate.

The last Palestinian legislative elections were held on January 25, 2006—nearly 20 years ago.

Hamas won those elections. Abbas’s Fatah party lost.

When Hamas tried to form a government, the U.S. and Israel—horrified that Palestinians actually voted for the wrong party—worked to destabilize the Hamas government, leading to the 2007 split where Hamas seized Gaza and Abbas retained the West Bank.

Since then, Abbas has governed by decree—no elections, no parliament, no democratic accountability.

When elections were finally scheduled for May 22, 2021, Abbas postponed them indefinitely just weeks before voting, citing Israeli restrictions on voting in Jerusalem as the excuse.

The real reason? Polls showed Abbas’s Fatah would lose again—both to Hamas and to breakaway Fatah factions led by Marwan Barghouti.

As Council on Foreign Relations analyst Elliott Abrams documented in 2019:

“Abbas just holds on and on and governs by decree. He has now undertaken machinations that will in fact eliminate the PLC entirely, replacing it with an unelected PLO organ.”

This is the “democratic partner” Western governments pretend to support.

The Palestinian Authority Myth requires believing that a dictator who canceled elections because he knew he’d lose somehow represents “moderate Palestinian aspirations.”

Bethlehem’s Christian Exodus: From 86% to 12% Under PA Rule

Netanyahu issued a stark warning about what PA governance actually produces:

“Look at Bethlehem. Under Israeli control, Christians thrived. Since we handed it to the Palestinian Authority, the Christian population has plummeted.”

The numbers tell a story Western media refuses to acknowledge.

In 1950, Christians made up about 86% of Bethlehem’s population.

When Israel controlled Bethlehem (1967-1995), Christians remained a strong majority.

The PA assumed control in 1995 under the Oslo Accords.

By 2016, Christians had dropped to just 12% of Bethlehem’s population.

The 2017 Palestinian census placed it even lower: 10%.

Netanyahu stated in his December 2025 Christmas message:

“Bethlehem used to have 80% Christian population when it was under Israel’s jurisdiction. When we left and gave it to the Palestinian Authority, it has since dwindled to 20%.”

Meanwhile, in Israel proper, the Christian population has grown from 36,000 in 1948 to 187,900 in 2025—making Israel the only country in the Middle East with a growing Christian community.

What explains this dramatic reversal?

A 2024 Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy study documented:

• Violence and coercion to convert to Islam
• Religious and legal discrimination
• Desecration of holy sites
• Social exclusion
• Systematic land confiscation through PA courts
• Exclusion from leadership positions
• Hamas interference in Bethlehem’s municipal government (contrary to PA law)

The Greek Orthodox Church issued this statement:

“Terrorist attacks against Christians, assaults on churches, cemeteries, and Christian properties in the Palestinian Authority… have become daily occurrences, and their severity clearly intensifies during Christian holidays.”

And here is more:

In Gaza, the situation is even worse. The Christian population dropped from 5,000 when Hamas took power in 2007 to approximately 600 by October 2023.

Testimonies from Palestinian Christians in Gaza describe:

• Constant threats to their lives
• Practicing faith in secret
• Growing beards to blend in with Muslims
• Reports of kidnappings and forced conversions
• Sexual assaults against women and girls

Yet Western leaders promote the Palestinian Authority Myth—pretending that this regime represents “tolerance” and “coexistence.”

The Christians of Bethlehem know better. That’s why they’re fleeing.

Same Textbooks as Hamas: The PA’s “Moderate” Curriculum

In July 2024, the Palestinian Authority signed a Letter of Intent with the European Union, committing to curriculum reform and removal of inciting content to align with UNESCO standards of peace and tolerance.

The results?

IMPACT-se, the international organization that studies textbooks, issued a devastating March 2025 report on PA school materials:

“The materials published for the 2024-2025 school year demonstrate a complete absence of such reforms.”

Complete absence.

The PA textbooks for the 2024-2025 academic year continue to:

• Glorify violence and martyrdom
• Demonize Jews and Israelis
• Teach maps showing Palestine replacing Israel
• Celebrate terrorist “heroes”
• Promote hatred as religious duty

As Council on Foreign Relations analyst Elliott Abrams wrote:

“Donors to the PA’s educational programs should take a closer look at what they are supporting. PA schools are teaching another generation to hate Jews and Israelis and to become terrorists.”

This is against the backdrop of significant textbook reforms in numerous other Arab and Muslim countries, also documented by IMPACT-se.

The Palestinian Authority Myth requires pretending that teaching children to hate and kill represents “moderation” compared to Hamas.

In reality, there is no substantive difference between PA and Hamas educational content.

Both teach eliminationist ideology. Both glorify terrorism. Both deny Israel’s right to exist.

The only difference is branding.

“This Time Will Be Different”: Western Leaders’ Perpetual Delusion

The Palestinian Authority Myth has survived three decades despite perfect predictive failure.

Every time Western leaders invest in the PA as a “moderate alternative” to terrorism, the PA proves them wrong.

1993: Oslo Accords

• Promise: PA will combat terrorism and educate for peace
• Reality: Second Intifada (2000-2005), 1,000+ Israelis murdered
• Western response: “We need to strengthen the PA”

2005: Gaza Withdrawal

• Promise: Giving Palestinians autonomous territory will foster moderation
• Reality: Hamas takes over (2007), 16 years of rocket attacks, October 7th massacre
• Western response: “We need to revitalize the PA”

2018: Taylor Force Act

• Promise: Cutting aid will force PA to end pay-for-slay
• Reality: PA simply transfers payments to different agency
• Western response: “We need to resume aid to strengthen moderates”

2024-2025: Post-October 7th

• Promise: “Reformed Palestinian Authority” will govern Gaza after Hamas
• Reality: PA continues pay-for-slay, teaching hate, suppressing dissent, refusing elections
• Western response: Recognize Palestinian statehood anyway

This pattern reveals the psychological mechanism behind the Palestinian Authority Myth:

Western leaders are emotionally invested in believing the PA represents moderation—because the alternative (that Palestinian nationalism is fundamentally eliminationist) requires acknowledging that decades of policy, billions in aid, and countless “peace processes” have been based on a fatal misreading of reality.

Admitting the Palestinian Authority Myth is a delusion means admitting catastrophic policy failure spanning three decades.

So they double down.

“This time will be different.”

It never is.

The “Revitalized PA” Fantasy: Biden’s Post-October 7th Delusion

After October 7th—after Hamas, the democratically elected Palestinian government in Gaza, committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust—President Biden proposed a solution.

In a November 18, 2023 Washington Post editorial, Biden wrote:

“A revitalized Palestinian Authority should govern both the West Bank and Gaza.”

“Revitalized.”

The term became ubiquitous—”RPA” (Revitalized Palestinian Authority or Reformed Palestinian Authority).

But what evidence existed of “revitalization” or “reform”?

None.

Senator Tom Cotton warned in February 2024:

“It would be naive to think that after years of facilitating terrorism against Israelis and Americans the Palestinian Authority would suddenly have a change of heart.”

He was right.

Between Biden’s November 2023 proposal and January 2026:

• Pay-for-slay continues (despite announced “reforms”)
• Textbooks still teach hate (despite signed commitments)
• No elections held (despite repeated promises)
• Abbas remains dictator (now in year 21 of a 4-year term)
• Christians continue fleeing (Bethlehem down to 10%)

The Palestinian Authority Myth requires believing that cosmetic changes—switching which agency pays terrorists, announcing elections that never happen, signing reform pledges never implemented—constitute “revitalization.”

In reality, the PA under Abbas is structurally incapable of reform because:

1. Its legitimacy rests on opposition to Israel’s existence—moderate positions undermine its raison d’être
2. Its funding depends on victimhood narrative—solving the conflict ends the money flow
3. Its leadership benefits from autocracy—elections threaten their power
4. Its ideology is eliminationist—compromise contradicts core doctrine

Expecting the PA to “reform” is like expecting Hamas to become Zionist.

It’s a category error dressed up as policy.

Netanyahu’s Indictment of Western Complicity

Netanyahu didn’t just expose the Palestinian Authority Myth. He indicted Western leaders for their willful blindness:

“For much of the past two years, Israel has had to fight a seven-front war against barbarism with many of your nations opposing us. You condemn us. You embargo us. And you wage political and legal warfare, it’s called lawfare, against us.”

Then came the direct accusation:

“This is not an indictment of Israel. It’s an indictment of you! It’s an indictment of weak-kneed leaders who appease evil.”

Why do Western leaders perpetuate the Palestinian Authority Myth despite perfect evidence of its falsity?

Netanyahu identified the mechanism:

“Behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us, privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s intelligence services that have prevented time and again terrorist attacks in their capitals.”

Western elites know the PA is not a “moderate alternative.”

They know Abbas is a dictator funding terrorism.

They know Palestinian textbooks teach eliminationist ideology.

They know because Israeli intelligence—which Netanyahu noted equals “Five CIAs” worth of capability—keeps warning them.

But publicly, they maintain the Palestinian Authority Myth because:

1. Domestic political pressure from Muslim constituencies
2. Fear of being labeled “Islamophobic”
3. Institutional inertia (decades of policy can’t be wrong)
4. Moral cowardice (easier to pressure Israel than confront hard truths)

The result? Western governments reward terrorism (recognizing Palestinian statehood after October 7th) while punishing victims (ICC warrants, arms embargoes, UN condemnations).

This isn’t policy. It’s moral bankruptcy.

Conclusion: The Cost of Self-Deception

The Palestinian Authority Myth has persisted for three decades despite:

• $330 million annually rewarding terrorists
• Twenty years without elections
• Christian populations decimated wherever PA governs
• Textbooks teaching genocide
• Perfect predictive failure of every “peace process”

Yet Western leaders cling to this delusion with religious fervor.

Why?

Because admitting the Palestinian Authority Myth is a lie requires confronting three uncomfortable truths:

Truth 1: Palestinian nationalism, as currently constituted, is eliminationist, not territorial—it seeks Israel’s destruction, not coexistence.

Truth 2: Territorial concessions to eliminationist ideologies produce more violence, not peace—every withdrawal (Lebanon 2000, Gaza 2005) proved this.

Truth 3: Western “peace process” policy has been fundamentally wrong for three decades—billions spent, thousands dead, zero progress toward actual peace.

These truths are psychologically unbearable for Western elites who built careers on the opposite assumptions.

So they maintain the Palestinian Authority Myth.

They pretend Abbas represents “moderation.”

They pretend pay-for-slay is just “welfare.”

They pretend teaching children to kill Jews is “cultural sensitivity.”

They pretend twenty years without elections is “democratic legitimacy.”

And when confronted with evidence—like Netanyahu’s UNGA speech—they recognize a Palestinian state anyway.

Not despite the facts.

Because of psychological investment in denying them.

The Palestinian Authority Myth isn’t about the Palestinians.

It’s about Western self-deception—the refusal to admit that everything their foreign policy establishments believed about the Middle East has been wrong.

And as long as Western leaders prioritize protecting their egos over protecting their citizens, the Palestinian Authority Myth will persist.

No matter how many Christians flee Bethlehem.

No matter how many terrorists get paid.

No matter how many Jews get murdered.

The myth must survive.

Because admitting it’s a lie would require courage.

And courage, as Netanyahu noted, is precisely what Western leaders lack.

Next in Series: Coming soon: The Antisemitism Boomerang: From Medieval Blood Libels to Modern ‘Genocide’ Charges

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Glossary of Terms

1. Palestinian Authority: The governing body established under the Oslo Accords to administer parts of the West Bank and Gaza, led by Mahmoud Abbas since two thousand five.
2. Palestinian Authority Myth: The belief that the Palestinian Authority represents a moderate, democratic, and reformable alternative to Hamas and a viable partner for peace.
3. Two-State Solution: A proposed framework envisioning Israel and a Palestinian state existing side by side as separate sovereign entities.
4. Pay-for-Slay Program: A Palestinian Authority policy that provides financial payments to individuals convicted of terrorist attacks and to their families.
5. Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law Number Nineteen (Two Thousand Four): Palestinian legislation that formalized salary payments to imprisoned terrorists based on sentence length.
6. Mahmoud Abbas: President of the Palestinian Authority, elected in January two thousand five for a four-year term and still in power as of two thousand twenty six.
7. Benjamin Netanyahu: Prime Minister of Israel who addressed the United Nations in September two thousand twenty five, criticizing Western policy toward the Palestinian Authority.
8. United Nations General Assembly Speech (Two Thousand Twenty Five): Netanyahu’s address outlining evidence against the Palestinian Authority’s claims of moderation and reform.
9. Taylor Force Act: United States legislation passed in two thousand eighteen restricting aid to the Palestinian Authority unless terror payments cease.
10. Hamas: An Islamist organization governing Gaza since two thousand seven, designated as a terrorist group by many countries.
11. Oslo Accords: Agreements signed in the nineteen nineties establishing Palestinian self-rule and the Palestinian Authority.
12. Second Intifada: A period of violent conflict from two thousand to two thousand five marked by widespread terrorist attacks.
13. Bethlehem Christian Exodus: The sharp decline of the Christian population in Bethlehem following Palestinian Authority control.
14. IMPACT-se: An international research organization that evaluates educational curricula for incitement and extremism.
15. Eliminationist Ideology: A political worldview seeking the destruction of another state rather than coexistence.
16. Revitalized Palestinian Authority: A post–October seventh policy proposal suggesting the Palestinian Authority could be reformed to govern Gaza.
17. October Seventh Attacks: The large-scale Hamas assault on Israel in two thousand twenty three.
18. Lawfare: The use of legal systems and international institutions to apply political pressure.

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