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https://www.timesofisrael.com/pas-abbas-a-liability-in-planning-for-post-war-gaza-arab-officials-say/
PA’s Abbas a ‘liability’ in planning for post-war Gaza, Arab officials say
PA president can’t be relied on to take over after Hamas, Arab diplomats
tell ToI, highlighting Ramallah’s ineffective governance as a factor in
its current weakened state
Jacob Magid
By JACOB MAGID
Today, 8:25 pm 7
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in
the West Bank city Ramallah, on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023. (Alaa
Badarneh/Pool via AP)
WASHINGTON — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has become a “liability,” contributing to reluctance from Arab leaders to fully cooperate with the Biden administration’s strategy for a post-war Gaza,
two Arab diplomats told The Times of Israel this week.
The US envisions the PA eventually returning to govern the coastal
enclave currently ruled by Hamas, but the Arab diplomats expressed
skepticism that the 87-year-old president plagued by longstanding
corruption allegations is capable of reuniting the West Bank with Gaza
under the PA.
Accordingly, Arab allies have been hesitant to embrace US proposals to contribute to an international force that would help manage Gaza’s
security for an interim period until the PA can take over, the diplomats
said.
“There is not a lot of hope that this day could ever come under Abu
Mazen,” the first Arab diplomat said, referring to Abbas.
Certainly, the diplomats asserted that much of Abbas’s weakness was the
doing of Israel, pointing to longstanding policies in the West Bank
implemented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s successive
governments they said systematically weakened the PA over the past 15 years.
And the second diplomat noted that Netanyahu’s continued “rejectionist” approach regarding post-war Gaza planning is further contributing to the
chilly Arab response to the US proposals.
Landscapers work beneath a billboard depicting Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas wearing a Hamas headband, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday,
Nov. 23, 2023. (AP/Oded Balilty)
However, both Arab diplomats said the onus will be on Abbas to prove
that he is serious and capable of reuniting Gaza and the West Bank,
before their governments agree to help pave the way for the PA’s return
to the Strip.
The pair of diplomats, representing separate countries, spoke to The
Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, but willingness to voice such criticism at all is exceedingly rare, particularly in the midst of a war
when Arab governments are working to highlight their solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Neither diplomat is from Jordan, where Abbas is viewed more favorably,
but both diplomats insisted that their reservations regarding the PA
president are shared by other US allies in the region and have been for
some time.
For his part, Abbas has told the US that the PA will not return to Gaza
“on an Israeli tank,” and is only prepared to govern the Strip if it’s
in the context of a broader diplomatic initiative that leads to a
two-state solution.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, meets with US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, Pool)
US President Joe Biden has said he envisions the PA being “revitalized” before its responsibilities are extended to Gaza. He has not elaborated
on what this means, but a former US official familiar with the matter
told The Times of Israel this week that Washington seeks new faces at
the top of the leadership in addition to “significant governance reforms.”
Both of these aims were welcomed by the two Arab diplomats. Neither went
as far as to call for Abbas’s ouster, but the first diplomat agreed with
the second’s characterization of the PA president as a “liability.”
Abbas hasn’t held a presidential election since 2005 and a recent poll
found that roughly 85 percent of Palestinians want him to resign.
The diplomats argued that more than anything, what keeps their capitals
at arm’s length from the Biden administration’s post-war planning is an overwhelming feeling that it is somewhat futile as long as the fighting continues, given that there isn’t a consensus in the Arab world that
Israel will be able to remove Hamas entirely from the equation.
“What happens next? How can we even entertain what will happen next?” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said earlier this month.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, right, greets Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, center, and King Abdullah II of Jordan, during
a conference at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday,
Feb. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Burned bridges
Explaining the position voiced by the two diplomats, former PA official
and Abbas adviser Ghaith al-Omari pointed to the way his old boss
“mismanaged relations with most Arab countries.”
Al-Omari said Abbas had “refused to engage positively” with several Egyptian initiatives aimed at reconciling the PA president’s Fatah
movement with Hamas in recent years, greatly angering Cairo and
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in particular.
Abbas’s poor ties with some of the Gulf countries, namely the UAE, are
more well known, with the PA leader resenting Abu Dhabi’s hosting of his exiled PA rival Mahmoud Dahlan in addition to the Emirati decision to
normalize ties with Israel in 2020.
“The weakened state of the PA that we see today happened completely
under Abu Mazen’s watch, and he is seen as a leader who is ineffective
and [one who expects] that others will do the job for him,” said
al-Omari, who is currently a senior fellow at the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy.
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, center, with
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Hamas leader
Ismail Haniyeh after the opening session of the Arab Summit in Riyadh,
March 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Awad Awad, Pool)
“Many of those Arab leaders are very aware of the Israeli policies that weaken the PA, but they also believe that there’s much that the PA could
have done internally in terms of governance and in terms of advancing
the Palestinian interests in a more proactive manner,” he continued.
Al-Omari agreed that there were other steps short of Abbas’s removal
that could be taken to regain Arab leaders’ trust in the PA.
One could be the appointment of an empowered prime minister to run the
PA’s day-to-day operations and “set the diplomatic tone for the Palestinians,” al-Omari said, adding that another approach would be to
revamp the Fatah party — currently dominated by Abbas loyalists — in a manner that allows new leaders to emerge.
The former Abbas aide said that Arab states likely took note of a
meeting last week in Doha between Dahlan’s deputy Samir Masharawi and
another Abbas rival Nasser al-Qidwa with Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh
and Kahled Mashaal.
The sit-down came as Dahlan has increased his media presence since the
war, leading to speculation that he is interested in returning to
Palestinian politics after over a decade in exile.
Al-Omari clarified that Israel’s regional neighbors aren’t necessarily looking to throw their support behind Dahlan or any specific individual
but “are watching closely to see which Palestinian leader asserts themself.”
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larry
1 hour ago
Read the latest from Nikki Haley on why the two state “solution” isn’t possible. If the Arab states had any caring about the Palestinians,
which they don’t, they would form an Arab peacekeeping force, remove any vestige of Hamas, use their own money to rebuild, and set up a
government free from Iran/Hamas. All countries would pledge to Israel’s
right to exist. And if course, I believe in Santa Clause and the Tooth
Fairy.
TheRebbesBeard
2 hours ago
Hamas must be obliterated. Then Abbas must go. And Bibi must go. Then
we'll draw a map and they'll have to sign on the dotted line. Then we do
like Ireland: armed factions disarm completely and renounce violence. If
they abide by a peace for 10-20 years, and use international money
during that time to create a viable state/infrastructure/economy instead
of buying bombs and rockets, they get a state inside the borders of the
map they signed 10 years prior. If Ben Gvir's messianic maniacs want to continue building shacks outside the Israeli lines on those maps, well...they're on their own.
roykishore11
3 hours ago
No kidding, Abbas has to go! He's been in power for far too long
Morton Friedman
3 hours ago
The very idea of giving an organization that rewards terrorists with
cash grants power over Gaza is disgusting.
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