An architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords with Israel that raised hopes of Palestinian statehood, Abbas has seen his legitimacy steadily undermined by Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank, which he oversees. Many Palestinians now regard his administration as corrupt, undemocratic and out of touch.
But in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, President Joe Biden has made it clear that he wants to see a revitalized Palestinian Authority – which Abbas has run since 2005 - take charge in Gaza once the conflict is over, unifying its administration with the West Bank.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, met with Abbas on Friday, becoming the latest senior U.S. official to urge him to implement rapid change. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters after meeting the Palestinian leader in late November that they discussed the need for reforms to combat corruption, empower civil society and support a free press.
Three Palestinian and one senior regional official briefed on the conversations said that Washington’s proposals behind closed doors would also involve Abbas ceding some of his control over the Authority.
Gonna be hard, since Israel has spent literally decades undermining the PA, intentionally trying to sideline moderates, and actively publicly funded a coup by Fatah.
Abbas is 88 and Netanyahu has refused for over 15 years to meet with him. When he dies Israel won’t get a better deal.
Israel is not going to be okay with that. They gave startup money to Hamas to weaken the PLO. The PA is a corrupt pile of shit and all Hamas had to do to win the election in Gaza is to say they are not corrupt shit bags and they are a totally legitimate political party. Even then, Hamas did not win outright. But the Israeli government was fine with there existence because it weakened the PA and calls for a two state solution.
Right… forcing an utterly corrupt and bootlicking puppet regime onto Gazans is going to magically make the conflict go away - I guess it’s because it worked so well for the US in Afghanistan and Vietnam.
Classic example of the definition of insanity … which no recent American leader (last 70 yrs or so) seems to have learned.
I mean TFB there’s not much they can do if they maintain their nonviolence.
So, an attempt to create another Western puppet administration or an actual government representing the will of the people and protecting them? Is this the new South America or Afghanistan?
After Hamas? LOL! This whole thing massively increased support for Hamas and decreased it for PLA.
