PA threatens that its decisions would "change the face of the entire Middle East"

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday threatened Israel that its decision to expedite construction in settlements and east Jerusalem neighborhoods following the admittance of Palestine to UNESCO will drive the PA to take “important” and “dangerous” decisions.

Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, announced that the PA was about to take "important, big and dangerous decisions" if Israel continued with its current policies. He did not give further details about the expected decisions.

However, Abu Rudaineh said in an interview with BBC that the planned decisions would "change the face of the entire Middle East."

Last week, Abbas told an Egyptian TV station that he was considering "dangerous and significant" decisions in wake of the continued stalemate in the so-called peace process.

PA officials in Ramallah said they believed that the decisions include either the dismantlement of the PA or the resignation of Abbas.

At a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah last week, Abbas hinted at the possibility of dissolving the PA when he told delegates that the PA "was not a real authority."

Some Palestinians believe that dissolving the PA would be the most appropriate way to "punish" Israel for its refusal to stop construction in the settlements and occupied east Jerusalem neighborhoods and accept the pre-1967 lines as the basis for a two-state solution, according to the Jerusalem Post.

These Palestinians argue that dissolving the PA would mean that Israel would have to assume responsibility for running the day-to-day affairs of the Palestinians, at least in the West Bank.