The Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to boycott the recent conference in Bahrain, where the U.S. and Arab states proposed spending $50 billion to improve his people’s economic conditions, has brought to mind Abba Eban’s famous quip that Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” But, writes Zalman Shoval, this interpretation of Abbas’s decision-making, like Jared Kushner’s recent statement that Palestinian leaders made a “strategic mistake” by refusing to come to Bahrain, rests on false assumptions about his goals.

Last week, Hamas resumed launching explosives attached to balloons and kites into Israel, one of which landed in the southern town of Arad. The IDF responded with airstrikes, and the terrorist group first test-fired a barrage of missile into the Mediterranean and then fired a missile at an Israeli town—provoking further counterstrikes. Why disturb the peace now? Because, writes Yoav Limor, the monthly aid Hamas receives from Qatar is set to expire next month: