(The Australian, 20/11/2023)
Gaza and the West Bank should eventually be reunited under a new Palestinian Authority, US President Joe Biden said in an opinion piece at the weekend, as questions swirl over the future of the region once Israel achieves its goal of crushing the Hamas militant group.
“As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalised Palestinian Authority, as we all work towards a two-state solution,” Mr Biden wrote in the piece published in The Washington Post on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).
Israel’s top ally, Washington has given its full backing to the country’s response to the October 7 shock attack by Hamas, which left 1200 dead, mostly civilians.
About 240 people were also taken hostage.
But as the death toll from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza continues to climb – to 12,300 people, including more than 5000 children, according to the Hamas government – the US has voiced concerns over the manner of the strikes and questions over the long-term future of the territory once Hamas is vanquished.
“A two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term security of both the Israeli and Palestinian people. Though right now it may seem like that future has never been further away, this crisis has made it more imperative than ever,” Mr Biden wrote.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not reject Mr Biden’s plan but said the Palestinian Authority “in its current form is not capable of receiving responsibility for Gaza”.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the Hamas attack and his senior ministers are celebrating it, Mr Netanyahu said.
“We can’t have a civilian authority in Gaza that supports terror, encourages terror, pays terror, and teaches terror,” he said at a news conference.
Mr Abbas, meanwhile, appealed to Mr Biden to use his “significant influence” on Israel “to intervene immediately to … stop this humanitarian catastrophe, this genocide against our innocent people.”
In a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month, Mr Abbas said the PA could assume power in Gaza only if a “comprehensive political solution” was found for the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict encompassing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 and seized greater control of Gaza in 2007 in an attempt to prevent a takeover by the PA, the vehicle of the rival Fatah faction. It has been ruled by Hamas ever since. And Mr Aabbas has not called elections since.
Mr Abbas, 88, who has led the PA for 18 years, is widely unpopular and has been powerless against the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements and military control in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.
In his opinion article on Saturday, Mr Biden also threatened sanctions against Israeli settlers committing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank amid the conflict in Gaza.
“I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable,” he said.
“The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.”
The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah says since the Gaza war started, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, with a spike in army raids and settler violence.
Mr Biden has sent his top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, to the region.
Speaking before news of a tentative deal between Israel and Hamas, Mr McGurk told a security conference in Bahrain that there would be a “significant pause” in the war if some of the 240 hostages held by the militants in Gaza were freed.
AFP