Marc Lynch

What do you think about that?

That's a really good starting point, because think about what Palestinians are facing now in terms of settler attacks, meaning, you know, these are obviously civilians who are very often in the West Bank illegally and going into homes of Palestinians or burning them or going into properties and stealing them.

or going into cars and burning them, and in some cases, shooting people.

And that's on Palestinian territory, in Palestinian land.

There is not a single policeman stopping them.

Not a single one.

Because they don't dare.

They're not supposed to.

And the Israeli military would shoot them to death.

And at the same time, look at what they're doing.

They are working hard around the clock to make sure that there are no attacks on Israelis.

One reason why we haven't seen a lot of attacks or even demonstrations during what happened in Gaza on the West Bank.

So the Palestinian Authority

is a joke if you're thinking about it as a real government.

It certainly has no real control.

It's more of a municipality.

It plays some functional role that's important, but it is not a government.

And to think about the asymmetry of power

that has defined the past few decades.

Think again that Israel could put Mahmoud Abbas under arrest, the Palestinian Authority president, in his compound.