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On December 28, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz held a meeting at the latter’s home. It was the second official meeting since the Israeli government took power in June. The two had previously met in August and had a phone call a few weeks earlier.
Gantz and Abbas discussed deepening security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Israeli government and measures to alleviate the severe economic crisis in the West Bank.
The meeting was considered controversial on both sides. Hamas and other Palestinian groups called the meeting futile because it failed to advance the Palestinian national cause, and several Israeli politicians, including members of the ruling coalition, saw it as the first step in making unjust “concessions.” Palestinians.
Hardly Gantz and Abbas did not expect the controversy that would result from their meeting. So why did they continue anyway and what does the ongoing commitment between the two mean for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?
Political calculations
As he suffered international isolation in the previous US administration, Abbas has been eager to return internationally after US President Joe Biden took office in January 2021 and a new Israeli government was formed without former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Palestinian president probably considered Gantz’s July briefing the best option. Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak is also expected to follow in the footsteps of former Israeli Prime Minister Rabbi, who was ready to join the Palestinian leader and sign a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat.
Abbas visited Gantz’s house in search of a “political horizon” to follow in the footsteps of the Oslo Accords, which he had fathered. But in Israel, no one is talking to the Palestinians about a political process, and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has made it pretty clear that there will be no one in his government.
Therefore, Abbas only managed to secure some economic measures from Grease, and these are intended to help alleviate the economic crisis of the PA. Among them, Israel sent a $ 32 million tax advance to provide more work permits to the PA and Palestinian workers, and more permits for Palestinian employers to enter.
According to Israeli media, Gantz also reported to Abbasi that the Israeli government had granted permission to register about 6,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and 3,500 Palestinians on the Gaza Strip and issued identification documents. The registration is directly controlled by the Israeli authorities and the PA cannot add anyone without the permission of Israel, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without documents.
For Fat, Abbas’s commitment allows him to fully embrace the Palestinian file and use it to build his domestic and international political level. This initiative benefits the Biden administration, which has put pressure on the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to resume talks. It also allows him to differentiate himself from Bennett, who, fearing that his right-wing allies will abandon him, is reluctant to deal directly with the PA.
The Israeli government, despite its far-right discourse, has an interest in maintaining close relations with the PA, especially with security.
A meeting with Abbas last year escalated resistance operations in the West Bank and escalated violence against Palestinian civilian settlers and occupation forces. These attacks have left many Israelis dead and wounded.
Both Gantz and Bennett know that the security of hundreds of thousands of illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank depends on the cooperation of the AP. The Israeli Defense Minister sought and received these security guarantees from Abbas in exchange for the economic measures he offered.
The Israeli government is also supporting the PA, fearing that an internal collapse could lead to a resurgence of Hamas in the West Bank.
No way forward
The compromise between Abbas and Ganz was welcome in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Washington. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan worked hard to bring the views of both sides closer together on a variety of issues and to ensure that a meeting was held.
But even the Biden administration is not pushing for a major resumption of Israeli-Palestinian relations and a resumption of political negotiations. He seems pleased with this low-level commitment, acknowledging that at the moment it is impossible to resume talks on Palestinian internal divisions, the Tel Aviv right-wing government and Washington’s concern for regional and international issues, which it believes are more visible. More serious than the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Although Bennett is publicly opposed to his commitment to the PA, he has not stopped because he does not want to upset Washington, especially at a time when Iran is renegotiating a nuclear deal. It makes no sense to engage in political confrontation with U.S. allies while the ceiling of the Abbas-Gantz compromise goes beyond discussing the economic conditions of the Palestinians.
This strategy of exchanging limited economic benefits to deepen security cooperation may serve the interests of the Israeli government and its US allies well, but it does almost nothing to the Palestinians. Hundreds of work and income permits and an increase in tax money are unlikely to improve the lives of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. Nor can they solve the deep crisis of legitimacy that PA is suffering.
Calling for more security cooperation with the Palestinian security apparatus would not help to fix Abbas’s bad public image in Palestine at a time when Palestinian settlements against Palestinians are at their height. Israel may help temporarily stop the West Bank attacks, but as the causes of the violence remain unresolved, it will escalate again.
Moreover, the mobilization we saw against the Israeli occupation in 2021 during historic Palestine shows that the strategy of division and governance does not work. Treating the West Bank economic crisis as a separate issue from the suffering of Palestinians within the official borders of Gaza and Israel would not bring peace and stability. In fact, the more unresolved the Palestinian political demands, the greater the tension and the sooner or later the third Intifada may erupt.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial attitude of Al Jazeera.
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