The White House has announced that President Biden will hold a visit to the Middle East, which will also include visits to Israel and the PA, only next month.
Israel fears that the political crisis will eventually lead to the cancellation of President Biden’s planned visit to Jerusalem because of the possibility that the government will fall before the visit and also because of Prime Minister Bennett’s unsettled political status.
During the visit, President Biden is also scheduled to visit Bethlehem and meet with PA Chairman Abu Mazen.
But the PA chairman is tired of waiting for the promises of President Biden who since entering the White House has not even bothered to invite him to a meeting at the White House, but promised to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem, which would symbolize his government recognizing East Jerusalem as the future Palestinian state capital. .
PA officials have begun sending a new message under the headline “Patience has borders” following the events of the flag parade on “Jerusalem Day,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman a-Tzafdi arrived in Ramallah last week and met with Abu Mazen to formulate political measures against Israel.
Last weekend, Abu Mazen spoke by telephone with French President Macron and informed him that in view of Israel’s escalation in the territories. The PA is considering responding by suspending Israel’s recognition and security coordination with it.
The Biden administration, which wants to continue to manage the conflict on a low profile, was quick to try and reassure PA chairman, Foreign Minister Tony Blinken called him by phone and renewed the administration’s promises.
According to PA sources, the US Secretary of State repeated in a conversation with Abu Mazen the promise that the administration would stick to the two-state solution and that it would not abandon its promise to open the US consulate in Jerusalem.
As stated, Abu Mazen returned to the method of threats that he would suspend the PLO’s recognition of Israel and security coordination with it and implement the decisions of the PLO Central Council on the issue.
Senior Fatah officials say the message has been sent to the Biden, Egypt and Jordanian governments in recent days.
The PA chairman is once again “heating up old noodles”, these threats have already become a record that no one takes seriously.
Abu Mazen is trying to create a lever of pressure for President Biden so that during his visit he will make some gesture towards the PA if his visit to Israel does come to fruition.
Abu Mazen also asked Foreign Minister Blinkan for the administration to reopen the PLO offices in Washington that were closed during President Trump’s term, as well as to remove the PLO from the list of American terrorist organizations.
According to senior security officials in Israel, President Biden is not thrilled by Abu Mazen’s recycled threats. The Biden administration has decided, at this stage, to engage in conflict management with an emphasis on improving the Palestinian economy rather than trying to resolve the conflict.
The PA chairman has been making threats for a long time because of the political distress in which he finds himself.
In a meeting with figures from Bethlehem and Hebron held at the Muqata in Ramallah on October 2, 2021, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that the fact that Israel was rejecting the two-state solution forced Palestinians to go for other options: a demand for a UN partition resolution. As it is called “General Assembly Resolution No. 181”, or “a demand for the establishment of a single democratic state on the historic land of Palestine in which the full political and civil rights of the Palestinians will be exercised and not on one state based on support for occupation and coercion of apartheid regime.”
A few months ago, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad a-Shtiya met with a group of Israeli Arab journalists and told them that Israel was not interested in a two-state solution or a one-state solution.
“If the two-state solution is played out, we will soon return to the first slot that was in 1948 and then there will be one Palestinian leadership for the Palestinian people from the sea to the river.”
He added: “Israel will die demographically because the Jewish human pool in the world has already become a sword, the struggle for Palestine will be decided by one blow after another, not one blow, demography is an important element in the conflict so Israel is trying to get rid of Gaza and push it towards Egypt.”
The PA chairman is trying to blind his people by proposing these ideas that are blatantly inapplicable and hiding his political failures. His tenure as PA chairman from 2005 until today is a continuum of political failures because of his clinging to the PLO’s “red lines” and his attempt to impose them on Israel, he has no willingness to make a historic compromise.
Most of the Palestinian public in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in the Palestinian diaspora, do not believe a word that comes out of the mouth of Mahmoud Abbas, he is perceived as a symbol of corruption and holding on to a chair for economic gain for himself and his two sons.
If his people treat him this way, why should Israel take his threats seriously?
Palestinian public opinion polls indicate that most of the Palestinian public advocates “resistance” as a way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rather than through negotiations.
Abu Mazen constantly suffers humiliating policy blows: President Biden refused his request to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last September, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett refuses to meet with him, leaders in Arab countries evade his requests to visit and meet with their countries, his only consolation was In a series of meetings with Defense Minister Bnei Gantz and a meeting with Lt. Gen. Nitzan Horowitz and Issawi Frij.
Israel is the lifeline of the PA chairman from a security, economic and political point of view. It is the IDF’s presence in the West Bank and the GSS ‘preventive activities that prevent Hamas from taking over PA territory.
Of all the threats from Mahmoud Abbas, nothing has come out to this day, he has threatened to cancel the Oslo Accords and the PLO’s recognition of Israel, to end security coordination with the GSS and the IDF, to cancel the Paris Agreements, to resign as chairman. P and more, talk like sand without any cover.
Therefore, Israel must not be moved by Mahmoud Abbas’ threats, even the Biden government understands his situation well and refuses to call on Israel to put pressure on Israel.
The Biden administration understands well the fragility of the coalition in Israel and is unlikely to surprise Israel or take any action against the Palestinians that could adversely affect the political situation of the Bennett government.