Halting security coordination with Israel means that Abbas and the PLO would be paving the way for Hamas to extend its control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. With that, the Palestinians would have another Islamist state that seeks to eliminate Israel.

Abbas and the PLO leadership are, in effect, saying: “We don’t like the results of the elections and that is why we are going to facilitate a Hamas takeover of the West Bank.”

It is only the Palestinian Authority’s security coordination with Israel that has thus far foiled Hamas’s plans to stage a coup against Abbas’s regime in the West Bank.

Were it not for this coordination, Abbas would have been removed from power several years ago — as was the case in 2007, when Hamas drove him and his PA out of the Gaza Strip. Even senior Palestinian officials acknowledge that Abbas would not survive in power without security coordination with Israel.

But now, Abbas and the PLO have decided to respond to the victory of Netanyahu by not only cutting off security coordination, but also intensifying their efforts to isolate and delegitimize Israel in the international community.