By sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, November 5, Washington was trying to sketch out a political horizon, for the time being infinitely distant, to the war Israel is waging – with its support – in the Gaza Strip. Facing PA president Mahmoud Abbas, he spoke of the future, at a time when Israel announced that its sole objective over the coming months was to "destroy" Hamas, following the October 7 attack.
The head of US diplomacy felt that "an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority" would be best placed to control post-war Gaza. In the longer term, he echoed US President Joe Biden's suddenly revived plan for a "Palestinian state" alongside Israel. Abbas responded by denouncing Israel's "genocidal war" in Gaza and calling for an immediate ceasefire. But he also said he was ready, for the first time explicitly, to assume power over the ruins of the enclave after the war, having been ousted by Hamas in 2007.
Abbas was looking even further ahead than the American administration: He was demanding to regain this power at the same time in the West Bank, where the Israeli army was massively deploying and weakening it, as well as in East Jerusalem, the Arab part of the capital annexed by Israel in 1967, where the PA does not exist. This weary 87-year-old president, rejected by a large majority of his population, has called for a comprehensive post-war political solution, believing that "military solutions will not bring security to Israel."
According to diplomatic sources, Blinken had a word of encouragement for the PA security forces still cooperating with the Israeli army against Hamas. He reiterated Washington's extreme concern about the risk of the PA collapsing altogether in the West Bank. Washington has recently redirected observation satellites to monitor the unchecked expansion of settlements as a result of the war. The US fears that a third front could open up in the West Bank, where Israeli settler militias are unleashing unprecedented violence.
The Israeli army has also been stepping up arrests, stockpiling prisoners with a view to an exchange with Hamas. Israel was also still refusing to pay the PA some €120 million due in taxes, according to Ramallah's estimate, which the army has collected at the borders of the territories. This money was destined to fund Gaza's civil servants and finance health and education projects in the enclave.
According to diplomatic sources, a senior PA official welcomed the strong speech given by Blinken to his Arab counterparts the previous day in Amman (Jordan), urging them to support Ramallah. The PA noted a shift in tone, including from the United Arab Emirates, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020 and until recently regarded supporting Abbas as a dead end.
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