The Palestinian human-rights activist Bassem Eid blames a corrupt and inept Palestinian leadership for the spate of vicious attacks on Israelis:
Palestinians appear to have no responsible leaders, neither in the Palestinian territories nor in the Knesset. Instead of calming the violence, these leaders are only fanning its flames.
This wave of violence will not help our ability to convince anyone, let alone Israelis, that we deserve a state. It will not help the growth of Palestinian civil society, which is badly needed if we are ever to be taken seriously as a peace partner. It will certainly not help the Palestinians’ economic situation. All that this “achieves” is to push Palestinians further back. Yet the leaders are content to preach hate then sit back and enjoy their financial perks while Palestinian society is crashing and burning. . . .
I think the main cause for this cycle of violence is that some Palestinians feel they have nothing to lose, and that is directly due to poor Palestinian leaders who are unable to bring them economic and political independence. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, uses the settlements as an excuse not to negotiate with Israel—which is totally ill-advised since the longer he waits to negotiate, the more settlements there are. Many young Palestinians realize they are led by incompetent individuals and they envy the prosperity of Israel. There is also an important aspect within Palestinian society of incitement toward Jews, a sort of hate culture that is nurtured by terrorists and corrupt politicians. The ongoing violence is partly driven by this hate, and results in more hate.
Read more on Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy: http://isgap.org/flashpoint/palestinian-violence-and-failure-of-leadership/