There were two main reasons for Defense Minister Bnei Gantz's decision to host Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his home in the middle of the week.
The first reason was ceremonial.
Last month, during a visit to Ramallah, Abu Mazen hosted Ganz at his private residence.
Ganz wanted to reciprocate in the same way, and also to try to produce some sort of compromise in the relationship, at least in the interpersonal ones.
Yes, he knows that Abbas has signed an appeal to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and no, he has not forgotten that he himself - Ganz - stars at the top of the list of "criminals" that the Palestinians want to prosecute.
But the way to thwart this, in his view, is through dialogue and softening hostility, rather than escalation.
The second reason is conscious.
Relations with the PA are at a low ebb.
It also permeates the Palestinian public, especially the young, who see Israel as an enemy.
When the defense minister hosts the chief at his home, the message that goes through is the opposite: that these are partners.
Not friends, but partners who are able to sit and talk, and certainly not enemies.
Ganz knew that the meeting would bring him criticism.
Compared to what he has snatched in the three years since entering politics, it has not been for him even a trickle.
"On the right they visited me, on the left they greeted me. I am in the middle, exactly where I am," he told his interlocutors.
He just has a hard time understanding the logic behind the critique: what do the critics offer, other than mocking tweets?
What solution do they have for the three million Palestinians in Judea and Samaria?
What is their patent that will maintain a reasonable coexistence, and prevent a deterioration to a third intifada?
The struggle for succession is at its peak
In recent months, there has been a deterioration in the security situation in Judea and Samaria. It is possible to argue (as the IDF does) whether this is a wave of terrorism or not, but it has been less than a year. The general feeling is that something fundamental has been undermined in the field, and needs to be fixed before there is a widespread flare-up.
The current situation has quite a few reasons. The central one is political, intra-Palestinian. Abu Mazen celebrated his 86th birthday last month. The struggle for his inheritance is at its peak. Many dream of succeeding his chair, from Jibril Rajoub, Hussein a-Sheikh and Mahmoud al-Alul in Ramallah, through Muhammad Dahlan in Abu Dhabi, to Marwan Barghouti in the Israeli prison.
Above all, the shadow of Hamas hovers.
The organization does not hide its overarching goal: to take over the Palestinian Authority (on the way to the ultimate goal, to eliminate the State of Israel).
Some of it is done in political ways, but the majority - in terrorism.
Hamas is trying to roll out terrorist attacks to undermine the situation on the ground.
Its logic is simple: terrorist attacks will force Israel to act.
These actions will harm the governance of the Palestinian Authority, and will provoke outrage in the Palestinian street.
The PA will weaken, and the public will follow those who offer it another solution - Hamas.
It is hard to miss the tremendous effort the organization is putting into trying to advance this scenario.
Earlier this year, a large Hamas organization that sought to carry out showcase attacks, including suicide bombings and kidnapping of soldiers, was thwarted in Samaria.
The terrorist who carried out the attack in the Old City where Eliyahu Kay was killed last month was also a Hamas operative.
It should be assumed that additional squads are operating in the area.
A two-headed mechanism is responsible for this effort. One part is operating from Gaza under Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Daf, and the other part is operating from abroad under Salah Aruri. Its activity from their territory - it may be time to thwart it in other, less friendly ways.
But Hamas is not the only reason for the situation in Judea and Samaria. The weakening of Abu Mazen and the deteriorating economic situation are directly causing the loss of governance in some areas of the PA, especially in northern Samaria. It manifests itself in crime and violence, and at the end also in terrorism.
When Abu Mazen claimed to Gantz at their meeting that many Israelis have been coming since the attack in which Yehuda Dimentman was killed in the Chumash area, Gantz replied that this would not have happened if the PA had prevented the attack. The solution agreed: to expand Palestinian policing efforts in the sector. The Palestinians tell themselves that it is intended to thwart the activities of the settlers, and the Israelis - that it is aimed at terrorism.
Either way, the excuse is less than a year, the result is important.
Israel has a direct interest in the PA being strong.
It does not reduce the IDF's freedom of action against terrorism, but it will also allow the Authority to handle aspects of anarchy that could make future terrorism.
Abbas meeting contact between economic security matters. To the Authority will be strong, it needs a boost from Israel. And the Palestinian public to Will support it, he needs to see results.Therefore, it was also decided on a series of measures designed to increase trust between the parties, and especially to strengthen the authority - from population registration, through early tax payments that Israel collects and transfers to the authority, to expanding the entry permits of Palestinian officials to Israel.
In the future, Israel will consider additional measures, including a pilot for the introduction of containers through the Allenby Bridge, a reduction in the handling fee that Israel charges for the fuel purchases it makes for the PA, and a further increase in the quota of workers allowed to work in Israel.
These measures are supposed to bring hundreds of millions of shekels a year to the disposal.
Control the height of the flames
Ganz felt at the meeting less hostile than before.
He asked Abu Mazen to remove the prosecution in The Hague, and was granted a permanent response linking the matter to the resumption of political negotiations. This is the second time Gantz has raised the issue with Abu Mazen, and the second time he has received the same response. , But they are also not currently escalating the situation.
Ganz believes that Israel should return to talking to the PA at the political level as well, but he knows it is not practical: certainly not under the current government.
He finds it difficult to admire the claim that the last decade has made the Palestinians irrelevant;
Although Israel benefited quite a bit from this - the most prominent of which is the Abrahamic Accords - it remained with the problem.
The Palestinians are here, and they are here to stay.
There are more and more voices in the PA claiming that the political stalemate is good for the Palestinians.
With each passing day, with each outpost set up, each side holds the other's throat tighter, reducing the possibility of the parties separating.
Quite a few experts believe that it will soon be impossible, and there are those who believe that it is impossible today for practical reasons.
That Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank can no longer be severed.
Israel will never escape the question of what it wants from itself, and by implication - from the Palestinians.
Until then she should continue to manage the conflict, in an attempt to control the height of the flames.
It is a complex process, carried out partly with guns and arrests, and partly with words and gestures.
Those who do not act in both ways at the same time will end up with only more terror and violence.
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