The Jerusalem Post conveyed statements on Monday from the European Union’s envoy to Israel emphasizing that what the outlet described as an “unprecedented” EU offer to Israel and the Palestinians – under which the parties would be granted Special Privileged Partnerships with the bloc should they ink a comprehensive peace deal – was designed in part to prevent a future Palestinian state from collapsing into a failed state.

Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen said that one of the purposes of the proposal put on the table in December by the EU foreign ministers was to allay Israel’s concerns that a future Palestinian state would inevitably become unstable and turn into a “launching pad for attacks on Israel, as was the case in Gaza.”

“What we can offer is to ensure through economic, training and other kinds of assistance a greater stability in a future Palestinian state, and to strengthen the links between Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt to give them a stake in the stability of a future Palestinian state,” he said.

Various powers have been scrambling to articulate how a Palestinian state could avoid quick state failure, amid deepening analysis indicating that the opposite was likely the case. Analysts have long listed the West Bank’s precarious financial situation as one of at least four structural barriers to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. The territory’s economy is largely floated by outside assistance, and the Wall Street Journal recently reported that efforts to bolster its economic institutions had been “slow to show” benefits.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has also been routinely criticized for failing to maintain political legitimacy, with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas currently serving in year nine of what was originally a four year term.

Alongside those two concerns are ones regarding the failure of any Palestinian government to establish a monopoly on violence within its borders, and the governance split between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Fatah-ruled West Bank territories. A single state with territory ruled by rival governments is almost by definition a failed state.

[Photo: Honaker Garth / YouTube]