“Abbas has no chance of survival in the Arab Spring, and he understands that the path of talks with Israel has come to an end."
The talks were always a sham anyway, an attempt to fool Western politicians into thinking that the "Palestinians" would accept a negotiated settlement. They were never going to. Abbas himself said he would never recognize a Jewish state. The difference between Abbas's Fatah and Hamas was always about whether the jihad against Israel would be pursued slowly or quickly. That was the only real difference.
Now, if Col. Yaniv Alaluf is right, the jihad will be pursued the Hamas way, with even more ferocity than before. And the tool in the White House will respond by pressing Israel for more concessions.
Third intifada has already started, IDF officer says Times of Israel January 6, 2013
The third Palestinian intifada is already under way, a top IDF officer told reserve troops last week, warning that things could get bad even without thousands of militants charging Israel’s borders. “It doesn’t take thousands of AK-47 assault riffles to create problems,” Col. Yaniv Alaluf said.
Alaluf, the commander of the Etzion region brigade, said the IDF expects to see more clashes with Palestinians like one that took place last week in Jenin, but it is well prepared and capable of dealing with terror, Ynet reported on Sunday.
“[Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas’s process is over and has been replaced by the Hamas approach,” Alaluf said. “Abbas has no chance of survival in the Arab Spring, and he understands that the path of talks with Israel has come to an end. The question now is what will replace it.”
“The third intifada wouldn’t be like the second one, which caught us unprepared,” said Alaluf. ”Today we’re at a much better starting position. Terror won’t make it to the center [of the country] because our defense system is better prepared.”
The officer expressed concern, though, that the IDF’s reserves forces might be overburdened in the case that the army needed to launch another operation in the Gaza Strip. “The multiplicity of the missions” that would need to be carried out by reservists would be huge, he said.
