It has now been confirmed that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is planning to ask the UN to set a timetable for the end of the Israeli “occupation” and the establishment of a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders, with its capital in eastern Jerusalem.

Interviewed in the Palestinian media, top PA official Jibril Rajoub has reported that Abbas will “drop a bomb” on Israel at the UN, presenting his aggressive proposal as part of a “day after” plan following the end of the current war in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Qatari News Agency, an agreement to that effect was reached in Abbas’ meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Hamas’ political chief Khaled Meshal, in Doha last week.

Despite the fact that such a move by the Hamas-Fatah unity government at the UN is a clear violation of the Oslo Accords, which was the legal basis for the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s political leadership is eerily silent. One might have thought that after past Israeli warnings to Abbas not to form a unity government with Hamas and not to ignore the Oslo Accords by taking hostile political steps at the UN, we would see Israeli firm action in response to this latest “timetable threat”.

The deafening silence from Israeli leaders, who still refer to Mahmoud Abbas affectionately as “Abu Mazen” (Mazen’s father), thereby putting a gentle, human face on a deceitful enemy who has continued the PA tradition of directly rewarding terrorists and their families after each terrorist attack, is very disturbing.  Despite the blatantly hostile moves taken by Abbas, there have been only weak, temporary responses, and so far, there has been no response to this latest threat, which this time he seems intent on carrying out in honor of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Somehow, the flaccid responses or non-responses from Jerusalem haven’t proven to be a convincing deterrent to Abbas’ political aggression.

The Israeli response doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should be very clearly stated as follows, as a direct response to hostile actions:

1. Once Abbas issues his “timetable” demand at the UN this week, make it clear to him and do so publicly, that the Israeli time clock has started ticking, leading to the dissolution of his Palestinian Authority.

2. The PA was established as a result of an agreement with Israel. Once the PA unilaterally throws the responsibility for making peace over to the UN, that agreement is null and void.

3. The Levy Report, which in 2012 reaffirmed Israel’s national rights over Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank), should be immediately adopted, thereby replacing the Oslo Accords as the legal basis for government policy in these areas, in which the PA currently has seven autonomous cities and many defacto autonomous towns.

4. The PA should thus be declared “a hostile entity on Israeli soil”, with the ramifications of that statement for follow-up Israeli actions to be debated in the Cabinet.

While much was written during Operation Protective Edge about the need to restore Israel’s military deterrence, the real problem all along has been our lack of a political deterrence, which causes the world not to take seriously our occasional threats to respond to political aggression.

“You make of us an object of strife unto our neighbors, and our enemies laugh amongst themselves.” (Psalms 80:7)

Until we start responding with more than empty words to Abbas’ long list of hostile actions, Israel’s political deterrence will continue to be the laughing stock of the Middle East.