7/12/2023–|Last updated: 12/7/202302:05 PM (Mecca time)
An exclusive report by Newsweek magazine on Thursday quoted a senior Palestinian official as saying that the Palestinian Authority is ready to regain full control over the Gaza Strip as soon as the war between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) ends, and that it is also prepared to hold its first national elections since 2006 as part of A broader long-term peace agreement.
The Palestinian Authority will accept the proposal of the administration of US President Joe Biden to reunite the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under the authority’s control, if the international community supports the reconstruction of Gaza and pushes Israel to agree to the two-state solution, according to what a prominent member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Ahmed Majdalani, said yesterday, Wednesday, in an interview with The magazine was conducted in a government office in Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian administration in the occupied West Bank.
Majdalani said, “We are ready for a reform political agenda through free and democratic general elections.” He added that the Palestinian Authority will not go to the negotiating table if Israel does not allow it to decide the future of the Gaza Strip. He said, “We will not return on the back of an Israeli tank. This will be done through a political solution.”
He also said that the Palestinian Authority could begin governing Gaza once the current conflict ends, and could hold elections after a “transitional period” of one to two years. He added that if Abbas were still in office at that time, it would be up to him and his political party to decide whether he should seek re-election.
The American magazine stated that these statements represent the first substantive response from the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to the White House’s vision for the post-conflict Gaza Strip, which was detailed by US Vice President Kamala Harris in a speech she delivered last Sunday.
A political solution to the conflict
She commented that the situation presented by Majdalani also raises major areas of potential disagreement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, and that it is an indication of the obstacles facing Washington’s efforts to begin charting a political solution to the conflict.
Newsweek alluded to what an Israeli official, who requested anonymity to provide a frank assessment of the Biden administration’s strategy in the Gaza Strip after the war, said that Israel is unlikely to agree to any solution to Gaza that it does not see as meeting its security needs.
Another Israeli official said that once Israel decides that it has achieved its military goals in the Strip, which include the return of more than 100 remaining hostages, the process of demilitarizing Gaza will not happen overnight.
Experts on regional affairs and former American officials said that in addition to the questions surrounding the future of Gaza, a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as the one proposed by the White House, also needs to address broader regional issues.
In this regard, James Jeffrey, the US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey during the era of former President Barack Obama, said that the thorny problem is dealing with Iran’s support for groups such as Hamas and the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
Given all the challenges, administration officials realize that the proposed path to peace is out of reach, said a person familiar with White House planning who requested anonymity. The source said, “The administration knows that this may not be the solution. But no other solution is possible.”
