The Biden administration's plan to "revitalize" the Palestinian Authority (PA) is being interpreted by Palestinian leaders as permission to form an alliance with the murderers and rapists of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas.
In November 2023, the Biden administration called for "revitalizing" the PA in the hopes that it would be able to oversee the Gaza Strip once the Israel-Hamas war ends.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US looks forward to working with the new PA government headed by Mohammed Mustafa, which was established last April, "to deliver on credible reforms."
"A revitalized PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the conditions for stability in the broader region," Miller said.
According to Yohanan Tzoreff, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies:
"President Biden coined the term 'revitalized Palestinian Authority' as a linchpin of a two-state vision, which he continues to view as the exclusive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...
"The PA, under Abbas, has faced substantial challenges, including a loss of trust among its people and governmental ineptitude manifested by constant decline in provided services. Abbas, himself, is increasingly perceived as an autocrat determined to reject vital reforms, and the authority of the courts has diminished, with their rulings constrained by the Chairman's decrees, sparking growing unrest among lawyers' groups and trade unions...
"Mahmoud Abbas and his fellow PA leaders refrained from condemning the massacres carried out by Hamas on October 7. Some even justified the acts. The PA also continues to pay monthly allowances to the families of Palestinians who perpetrated attacks against Israelis, a move perceived in Israel as encouraging terrorism."
Instead of starting a "reform process" within the PA, as the Biden administration has demanded, Abbas and his top officials are still pursuing unity and reconciliation with Hamas, whose members carried out the October 7 atrocities against thousands of Israelis. It is hard to see how such an alliance between the two Palestinian parties would even begin to benefit the Palestinians or advance peace and security in the Middle East.
Palestinians living under the rule of the PA and Hamas have long been complaining about financial and administrative corruption, as well as repression and human rights violations. Here is what Human Rights Watch had to say about the status of human rights under the PA and Hamas:
"Both the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza have in recent years carried out scores of arbitrary arrests for peaceful criticism of the authorities, particularly on social media, among independent journalists, on university campuses, and at demonstrations. As the Fatah-Hamas feud deepened despite attempts at reconciliation, PA security services have targeted supporters of Hamas and vice versa. Relying primarily on overly broad laws that criminalize activity such as causing 'sectarian strife' or insulting 'higher authorities,' the PA and Hamas use detention to punish critics and deter them and others from further activism. In detention, security forces routinely taunt, threaten, beat, and force detainees into painful stress positions for hours at a time."
Since October 7, Abbas's ruling Fatah faction and Hamas have been holding talks to discuss ways of achieving unity and reconciliation. Most of the negotiations have been taking place in China, which appears to be vying for a bigger role in the Middle East.
The Biden administration has so far refrained from demanding that the PA halt its efforts to form a partnership with Hamas, which is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist group.
The Biden administration should instead be encouraging Palestinians to get rid of Hamas rather than seeking unity and reconciliation with a terrorist group responsible for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
In mid-July, China again invited Fatah and Hamas officials to pursue the unity and reconciliation talks in Beijing. Fatah and Hamas representatives welcomed the Chinese invitation.
Senior Hamas official Hussam Badran stated that his group "dealt with this invitation in a positive spirit and with national responsibility in order to achieve national unity."
The Hamas delegation will be headed by Ismail Haniyeh, while the Fatah team will be headed by Mahmoud al-Aloul, Deputy Chairman of Fatah.
In a statement carried by the PA's official news agency Wafa, Fatah renewed its "great appreciation for China, which hosted the national dialogue between Fatah and Hamas, and its desire to ensure the success of the Chinese efforts."
Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah Central Committee, told the Turkish Anadolu Agency that his faction "will participate in the China meeting, and is serious about ending the dispute [with Hamas]."
Another Fatah official, Abdel Fattah Dawla, said:
"We in Fatah are open to resolving and removing all obstacles in the way of reconciliation in light of the difficult circumstances that the Palestinian cause is going through."
On the eve of the resumption of the Fatah-Hamas unity talks, Jibril Rajoub, secretary-general of Fatah, justified Hamas's October 7 attack during which 1,200 Israelis were murdered, raped, tortured and burned alive, and more than 240 others were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
Rajoub, who previously served as head of the PA's Preventive Security Force in the West Bank, described the atrocities as a "defensive operation." He boasted that the October 7 attack had "thwarted attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue, as well as efforts to achieve normalization [between Israel and Saudi Arabia]."
Hamas and its patrons in Iran have previously stated that one of the goals of the October 7 massacre was to thwart US efforts to achieve normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Such statements show why there is basically no difference between the PA and Hamas. Both organizations believe that murdering Jews helps the Palestinians and advances their objective of preventing Israel and the Arab states from normalizing relations with each other.
The PA is lying when it states that it supports a two-state solution. How can the PA advocate for a two-state solution while its leaders are praising the October 7 atrocities and working to form an alliance with Hamas, an Islamist terrorist group whose charter openly calls for the elimination of Israel?
The PA has always stated that it prefers a one-state solution: a state of Palestine replacing all of Israel.
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
Bob Baker